It’s Not as if Chestnuts Were Ever Immortal

Eight billion should be durable,
But all four billion chestnut trees
Were lost to blight in fifty years.

Get just the right invasive pest,
And any species can vanish,
Even yours, the great vanquisher.

It won’t take an apocalypse,
Not even a whimper. Just a pest,
With just the best contingencies,

Could sweep through you as you’ve swept through
So many, and there you go, gone,
So many, swiftly, one by one.

Well, and you will go, one by one,
As the chestnut trees must have done.