Plura Fecit Nihil

You misremember
The past so you can
Empty a cavern—

You divide the piles,
Beauty to one side,
Prelapsarian,

A mass of horrors
To the other end.
You stroll in between,

Expressing longing
For lost innocence,
Diverse abundance,

The plants and creatures,
The arts and textiles
Before those horrors,

Which you explicate
In their reeking heap
Of guano and rust.

Now there’s a clear space
For you to stand in—
Good witness, human.