The Sixth Event

In deep time we count

            We lose count in deep time

five mass-extinction events:

            the mass of every extinction event:

1

geological timescales

geological timescales

         We scale geologic time

unstoried by human presence.

         with stories only humans can enter

2

skip ahead?

(At least not until

         (At least bury us under

the last thirty pages.)

         the last age of dirt.)

3

anthropocene

Anthropogenic global warming

         Ant colonies wage local war

—the sixth extinction—

         the first extinction of homo-sapiens

is rendered as fiction.

         is a etafiction

4

epilogue

Its epilogue

         Who will rewrite

unwritten.

         its preface?

5

trust

We trust ourselves

         Our selves rust and rot     

not to draw it into reality.

         into raw materiality.

(Or perhaps, of finding some way

         (Or perhaps of losing the way

to write ourselves out of it.)

         to erase ourselves into it).

6

choosing your own adventure

Knowing that epilogue

         Unaware of this rewritten preface

in which we write ourselves daily,

         through which we erase ritually

who would choose to skip ahead

         who would choose to fall behind

and see the final page?

         and seed the first page?