The Synanthropes Alone

If people had a change of heart,
Perhaps compelled by a virus,
Some kind of fiendish parasite
Evolved or carefully plotted,

And decided, we’ve had enough,
We’ve taken enough, we should go,
Then began dismantling cities,
Factories, all infrastructure,

Conscientiously shutting down
The human world before taking
All of their own lives, all at once,
No living person remaining,

You would think the world would be fine,
And all the other forms of life
Would immediately return
To filling the human-shaped gaps,

But would they, now? The suicide
Is not awful for what it does
To abbreviate a life, but
For the sufferers in its wake.