Overnight

Thing is, the way ants live
Is the way ants have lived.
Whales live the way whales live.

They sing and change their songs
And leave bones in the depths
As they’ve done since they did.

All sorts of things change things,
But the transformations
Of living are living.

Mice and termites press in
The gaps where old wood cracks
As in the past they did.

The clever crows twist twigs
To get at things. Chimps fish
With twigs to get at ants.

Ants live as ants have lived.
But you. What happened there?
You lived as bipeds lived

For a few million years,
And then, the same bodies
That wandered in small bands

Became mega cities,
Rocket bombs, satellites,
Plastic bags overnight.