The Engineer

by Brett Rutherford

1

Returning to that world
the Engineer found
all things a mess.
The fittest had not
survived and prospered.

Rather, the creeping things
had prevailed.

 

2
Where was it,
that Beautiful One?
No matter: all went
into the crucible.

He lit a match.
Warming the planet
sped up the process.

 

3

Too bad about the cats.
Most places, they
were the ones worth keeping.

He wondered
if there was a any painless way
to be eaten, as if the indignity
of being devoured
by vermin were not enough.

 

4

When all was poured
onto a great platter,
out of all those millions
only one species remained.

Teeth like piranha,
an ovoid fish
striped many-hued
like a bright coleus.

Lonely, untouched,
untouchable,
it would be lord of the lake
ringed by the skeletons
of those it had devoured.

 

5

Too late it was
when he returned.

The Perfect One
having awaited
patiently,
was dead.