I Am The Past, The Future... Poem by Ruta Mohapatra

Imagine being dug up after aeons!
Skulls, bones measured, examined under rays,
To place us at the right place,
In the right branch of the ancestral tree;
Hominid? Homo habilis? Homo erectus? Homo sapiens?

Imagine being on display at a museum,
On a stand, in a glass case!
Along with your broken utensils, ornaments,
Your lifestyle, the subject of Archaeology;
Stories built around each scrap of possession!

Ah life! Such is the fate of all mortals!
Be it you, me, the sun, the moon, the stars!
We are the history, the prehistory, the protohistory;
We are the graves, the mounds, the black holes!
All bowing to death, as it stands tall above one and all!