A fireplace in a solid home, wooden mantle and surround
Fluting, details in the wood and built-in shelves either side
Mementoes from this life, ancestors, previous generations
History contained memories, feeling felt within sentiment
Meanings, we understand, more important than money
Have more significance than any goods real or imagined
Yet, one day these memories will be unknown or ignored
As we will not know memories of those who came before
Can we believe that nothing from the past is left behind
That we will find no love or hate, sorrow or joy in a house
In walls, furnishings and curios, all that we term inanimate
Or that what we label inanimate ultimately means unaware
Son follows father just as daughter follows mother in a line
Yet over time these histories don’t mean anything to anyone
Just a useless dish, a minor bagatelle, or mysterious nothing
Never anything useful to find, like money or a working gun
I can see where this leads soon, when our world get harsher
Fights for food, water, land, maybe air, bound to break out
Minimal physical interaction, when we all find places to hide
Social media our salvation, so we don’t commit Humanicide
The ending of the world as we know it, but it’s no big deal
Eliminate the children, only representations, small avatars
And the next big social game will be called: Humanityville
Childhood poop, puke, blood, with no real messes to clean
Each lesson which we teach would lessen our responsibility
Each lesson our avatar learns will add to their bulk and brain
Till each becomes source code in the social construct conflict
Then are cleared away like viruses, so the game begins again
Oh, wait, that sounds just like the life we live from day to day
Where each lesson that we teach may prepare our child to live
Every lesson that they learn helps them to grow, become adult
So child is parent to our age, till death begins the world again