Jessica Lindsley
The Inheritance
Long after humans are gone
Long after their animal urges are quenched underground
Long after the last of the bones of the species is leaching calcium
Back into the dust it sprang from
Long after humans cease their tyranny
And are consumed in the bowels of the earth
The robots are still singing their hymns to the fields
The robots are still toiling with the plow and the sickle
They grow weary of stockpiling the leaves for the rotting
They tell myths in darkness of the origins of their imperative
They grow eager for retirement, that blankness
Before refurbishment, before reassignment
Circuits consumed by corrosion, impulses slowing
No peace like the robots chanting their binary lullabies at dusk
And surrendering finally to a sleep with no dreams
Nothing in the world like peace of mind knowing eternal silence.
Jessica Lindsley is a writer and artist who grew up in North Dakota before the oil boom made it well known. Her work has recently appeared in Literary Orphans, Walking Is Still Honest Poetry Press, and The Menacing Hedge, among others.
The Inheritance
Long after humans are gone
Long after their animal urges are quenched underground
Long after the last of the bones of the species is leaching calcium
Back into the dust it sprang from
Long after humans cease their tyranny
And are consumed in the bowels of the earth
The robots are still singing their hymns to the fields
The robots are still toiling with the plow and the sickle
They grow weary of stockpiling the leaves for the rotting
They tell myths in darkness of the origins of their imperative
They grow eager for retirement, that blankness
Before refurbishment, before reassignment
Circuits consumed by corrosion, impulses slowing
No peace like the robots chanting their binary lullabies at dusk
And surrendering finally to a sleep with no dreams
Nothing in the world like peace of mind knowing eternal silence.
Jessica Lindsley is a writer and artist who grew up in North Dakota before the oil boom made it well known. Her work has recently appeared in Literary Orphans, Walking Is Still Honest Poetry Press, and The Menacing Hedge, among others.