The Plague That Took Us

It killed not just living creatures but harmed the very earth that spawned it

          It fouled the blue waters and sullied the clear blue atmosphere

It destroyed many of the ancient microbe communities deep within the soil

          Its poisons spread evenly all throughout the vast planetary ocean

Many plants and animals species were totally extinguished

          Rats, roaches, weeds, flies and dirty pond scum prospered in its wake

Vast tracts of ancient forests, both tropical and boreal, simply disappeared

          It clearcut the valleys and rained thick silt that choked the life from the rivers

It grew in speed and power as it spread and multiplied

          Smoke and noxious gases blocked the sun wherever it was concentrated

Wandering fishes of the wide seas did not escape its deadly influence

          Evidence of its presence rained down to the deepest ocean trenches

Its burrowing unleashed sequestered toxic metals into pristine mountain streams

          Diverse plains were reduced to vast & sterile, monocropped factory wastelands

It ignited wood, coal, petroleum and natural gas immediately upon their polluting extraction

          The wastes from these activities ensured that little could return

It shattered the biospheric web without malice, foresight, understanding or regret

          Its simple movements alone became synonymous with habitat destruction

Evidence of its presence was visible to those orbiting in space

          It could even bring on global climate change with its vast toxic emissions

Sometimes it killed on purpose, more often, blindly, via simple collateral damage

          It ended great migrations and blocked the ancient spawning runs

It leveled mountains and dammed rivers, melted glaciers and turned the rain to acid

          It altered precipitation patterns, global winds and the ocean’s circulation

The world’s precious little fresh waters carried off the burden of its toxic runoff

          It joined meteors and volcanoes in producing a global mass extinction

The overwhelming noise of its progress filled land and sky and sea

          Its emissions changed the sunsets and its light even hid the very stars

Strangely it always sought out and killed vast numbers of its own kind

          There were parasites and viruses its habits raised against it as well

It even managed to spread into the atmosphere as far out as the moon

          In inhospitable environments it carried its own sustenance and protection

Often its effects were so destructive that this plague itself could not remain

          A savagely virulent minority were like the tyrant queens of drone honey bees

Little remained after its passing as it often spoiled what it could not use

          It arose so very quickly that many other species could not co-evolve

It was as if the life force experimented using entropy upon its own creations

          Even its closely related genetic cousins were not spared its savage attack

It burrowed in the earth, sped across the ground and flew through the sky

          It showed remarkable resilience despite incessant intra-species slaughter

It seamlessly integrated violence into nearly all of its behaviors

          Its activities managed to alter the planet’s carbon, nitrogen and hydrologic cycles

It wiped out entire symbiotic communities by targeting a single species

          Spreading invasive weeds sprang up to replace wild flowers in the shadow of its passing

It spread across the nurturing earth like a hideous mold on an agar plate

          Fires, explosions & smoke seemed to be by-products of its very respirations

Even ancient reptiles and amphibians perished in a geological instant

          But, many insects & microbes survived its onslaught and even preyed upon it

It could live in its wastes on dirty water and seemed content in its own fouled air

          It altered its own evolution by absorbing the radiation and mutagenic chemicals it released

Just the spreading runoff from its actions often crippled distant life forms

          It melted glaciers, expanded deserts and increased UV penetration

It metastasized in unplanned, cancer-like nodes nurtured by devastating supply vessels

          The tentacles between its colonies radiated destruction on all sides

Its success seemed to lie in its complete disregard for its own survival

          Its unconsciously generated diverse forms of emergent destruction

More powerful than a disease, its effects were like those of a geologic force

          Its behavior exhibited no discernible purpose, rhyme or reason

But when its resources were depleted, it disappeared as quickly as it came

          And after several hundred million years naught but a plastic trace of it remained