A Bad Landing
Green hills against a cobalt sky,
And sunlight, pure as molten gold --
One day of many streaming by --
A starship accidentally shoaled
Upon a long-forgotten world.
No trace of man remained at all
In valleys deep or seashores pearled.
No one extant to hear its call.
An ice age covered every trace
That time had not obliterated --
The home of one eccentric race
Whose destruction was self-orchestrated.
Polluted water, poisoned land,
Destruction on a worldwide scale --
The race that died by its own hand
Had left no one to tell the tale.
A million years elapsed, and yet
No normal life could thrive and grow;
And each day as that great sun set
Marked one more that man would never know.
And sunlight, pure as molten gold --
One day of many streaming by --
A starship accidentally shoaled
Upon a long-forgotten world.
No trace of man remained at all
In valleys deep or seashores pearled.
No one extant to hear its call.
An ice age covered every trace
That time had not obliterated --
The home of one eccentric race
Whose destruction was self-orchestrated.
Polluted water, poisoned land,
Destruction on a worldwide scale --
The race that died by its own hand
Had left no one to tell the tale.
A million years elapsed, and yet
No normal life could thrive and grow;
And each day as that great sun set
Marked one more that man would never know.
Author notes
This poem, of course, is more sci-fi than fantasy, but it deals with bad choices that the human race makes daily and the eventual consequences of ignorant and dangerous actions. I guess it could be termed dark since it forshadows the extinction of the human race due to stupidity and greed.
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