Erasure
by Cliff Lake
Figures in the mountains where nobody lives, What guidance did these artworks once give? Blocks of stone transported miles, Arranged in purposed astronomical style. Civic projects erected by unknown race, Mammoth structures millennia in place. Their technology we cannot surmise, Ancient wonders that baffle the wise. Lost knowledge we cannot bestow, What did they know and where did they go? So much of the past is gone – Misinterpret and move on. Wars recorded between city states, Mythologically now we appreciate. Wonders written that are lost to time, Fables now or mere child’s rhyme. Cataclysms and horrors become fiction, Fears of what happened once are superstition. Heroes and villains known only by name, Legends only and no one to blame. Lost knowledge we cannot bestow, What did they know and where did they go? So much of the past is gone – Misinterpret and move on. Why is the past a distant shore? What is hidden behind that closed door? Is there some plight we once foreswore? We once knew so much more… Venerable powers that rose and fell, Scattered fantasy and no one to tell. What disasters conquered what could not be saved? What was lost beneath the pounding waves? Empires that garbled history mentions, Denied these days in modern dissension. Why is so much knowledge wiped so clean? What can such erasure really mean? Lost knowledge we cannot bestow, What did they know and where did they go? So much of the past is gone – Misinterpret and move on. Cliff Lake 4/24/2026 Copyright © Clifford Lake 2026
Everything around us at the present time will similarly be lost and forgotten in the future, more so if we destroy ourselves and all that we've built. Thousands of years from now, we'll be the stuff of legends, myths and fables - a cautionary tale involving hubris and greed. We're a present day Atlantis, about to spontaneously combust.