Forgotten lives
have the most to tell us
about making it through ours
Lost in their times
swallowed up by the stories
that carried into ours.
Their shadows long gone
the billions unspoken
knew without understanding
their place in the grand arc of time
they held whatever joy they could
the best they knew how
to find delight
in between the rest
History tells us as much about ourselves
as phones tell us about each other
as science tells us about what makes us care
We’re separate, forcibly
still more uncaring
than we care to admit
Still there’s something, almost missing
in between our chests
that tells us something
about forgetting our lives
about losing what the fraying strands of History left behind
too long ago to recall
About what every other being
still understands without knowing
How they’ve kept their nature.
without even trying.
without a care for my envy of them.