PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

Absent for millenia ^3 (cubed), or more,

they have been termed The Encoders by historians.

They could not full formulate the formation and fusion of

stars; the movement of tides; or the inevitable decline of

species; they have left those enormous tasks to us.

Yet, despite the inherent flaws and failures by which

Encoders are distinguished (perhaps moreso than their

accomplishments), they could perceive, sense, and

even communicate to each other, the beauty of these

processes:  so they constellated stars, notated the

rhythms of tides, and depicted in vivid detaul the

verve of local species.  They communicated that to

each other:  they, too, would have called it Poetry, or

Music, or one of the other Arts they have left to us---

that we can neither appreciate nor emulate but only imitate;

thus becoming, even for our objective detachment, frustrate

(knowledge of this will only exacerbate

our loss of that which The Encoders could not communicate).

Records---the earliest are almost indecipherable; due to the

multiple codes with which they experimented before

providing to us, their inheritors, the Systemic Connective---

indicate that they considered themselves, and not us, as

human beings; and this inner ring of minor asteroids, rubble, and

assorted debris (some of which discloses, when closely

examined, the stubbornly lingering stain of human fluid, in the

thinnest, most microvisble, layers) was once a planet, intact,

orbiting about an inconsequential star on the galactic

periphery:  the planet that were their home, while it lasted; the

planet they called Earth.

Starward