After Us Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

A world without man
Can’t exist in its vastness
A dream undreamed
When great cities are quarries
And nights are utter horror

Unrecorded dread
Mother elephant trumpeting
Survival to day
In a time that is godless
Phase is seasons of the vain

Will it be better
When storms blow without warning
And love is absent
When rivers flow and fish wake
Words are echoes of the past.

We are not to know
As humanity is silenced
Savannah grass and lions’ pride
Will continue unexpressed
No one will hear love’s echo