They Didn’t Have Art. They Didn’t Have Cities. They Forgot How to Write. But They Lived for Another Millennium on Subsistence Agriculture.

So much for the Harrappans
In one new explanation.
Waiting out a pandemic
Compounding changing climate,

It’s tempting to imagine
Some droll future researcher
Explaining our abandoned
Civilization’s ruins

In exactly the same terms.
It seems funny, in some way.
It feels almost comforting,
To think of our descendants—

Artless, unlettered farmers,
Just as our ancestors were—
Carrying on anyway,
No researchers in those days.