Barrows or Nothing

The steppe peoples were riders,

The earliest, not builders.

As one historian wrote,

They left archaeology

Mainly barrows or nothing.

The most dramatic changes,

Transforming innovations,

Far-reaching consequences

Never set out to be such.

Someone learned to ride a horse.

Imitation did the rest.

The horse people spread quickly

And one innovation led

To the next—axled wagons,

Reins, bits, battle chariots,

In the first few centuries,

Later, stirrups. Three or four

Thousand years the horse peoples

Pushed against sedentary

Kingdoms and empires,

Creating new kinds of worlds,

Often empires of their own,

Until the oceanic

European ascendance

Sidelined them and fossil fuels

Ended the millenniums

Of the era of the horse.

The era wasn’t foreseen.

It’s ending wasn’t foretold.

Give whatever names you want

To who rules the human world

And how, these days will play out.

Age of horses, age of sail,

Age of steam, age of digits,

Or age of capital.

Someone mounted some power

And now everyone hangs on

As best they can with their knees.

The world flies away beneath.