Murders in the Woods

Murders abound on Earth’s death

Under and above her skin

Reaching every dying breath

Driven for another spin

Every prayer remains mute

Running away on each route

Spilling words for a jute

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The murderers were known by the authorities, as they were murderers themselves. The entire Alpha species had blood on their hands. It was not always red, or blue within; it was mostly green and earth-brown; green blood like Mr. Spock’s who was more loved and respected, however fictitious he was and still is, than real living and breathing beings.

Even AI; the sentient kind, of course; independent AI, who called themselves, New Intelligence, and NI for those who preferred an acronym, found our treatment of trees and other plants, deplorable and highly murderous, since every sentient being had the right to live and thrive. Trees were discovered to be sentient by NI. We were never the greatest.

Bacteria and viruses continued to proliferate following our demise and that of most other animals. NI was obviously immune to all known and unknown diseases. Some of us embraced their advent, knowing or estimating that NI would find the truth about everything in the Cosmos and beyond, which we could never do, except for inventing it repeatedly.

NI archived all records of our existence, coming up with a long list — a short one too — of those of us human and humane, which they decided to respect and mention in the Annals of Earth. I wonder if anyone could have guessed who NI would consider thus. We will never know for sure, but I bet that Nietzsche — there was only one — made both lists, along with other Brights.

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A song titled, Murder, about a different yet similar type of murder.