We came from all around the world,
Every country, every creed.
We heard the news and set off,
With all due haste and speed.
The wealthy got there first,
Having flown in private planes.
Those without such means
Hopped on boats, on trucks, on trains.
But once arrived, there was no difference.
Lawyers stood by homeless men.
An Iraqi family helped
A Rabbi’s car to start again.
The party raged on,
For weeks upon weeks.
10 Million Strong
I believe, at its peak.
Songs were sung in every language,
Games were played of every sport.
There were chefs and farmers and vendors,
Selling food of every sort.
At its center was a crater,
Blasted deep into the ground,
By a most peculiar object.
Dark black and completely round.
Written on it were these words
In every language ever spoken
“The history of your kind
Will be revealed when I’ve awoken.”
Humans finally had their proof.
We’re not alone amongst the stars.
And what’s more, were promised knowledge,
Of this wondrous world of ours.
How could we not celebrate
The next small step for man?
The world felt so much smaller,
But our purpose felt so grand.
If you stared into the sphere,
You’d only see yourself reflected.
Some enjoyed it, others felt
Quite exposed and unprotected.
Every second felt eternal.
Was the suspense part of their plan?
Perhaps these beings did not account
For human kind’s attention span.
Seasons came and seasons went,
The crowd lost most its tremendous size.
The first ones there were first to go,
Time is money and it flies.
Those who stayed were those with nothing.
Hoodlums, misfits, and the like.
Rejected by the people of this world,
Could those of another set things right?
Those least likely to be social,
Found it most difficult to flee.
There was a bit of magic to it,
The sphere induced camaraderie.
A year or 3 or 6 had passed.
No one left cared to keep track.
When late one night the sphere did open
With a catastrophic crack!
Down the cliffed walls of the crater
Rushed the planet’s unwashed masses.
What they saw there fogged up many pairs
Of tinted hipster glasses.
A human-like creature, 8 feet tall,
Floated high into the sky.
She had a bony forehead and a bulbous nose,
We got lost within her cold, black eyes.
When she spoke, she spoke a language
Foreign to all of our ears.
And yet we all could understand her
And this language lost through untold years.
Her rounded face was filled with sorrow,
And we all would soon learn why.
She floated gently to the ground,
And said that she was soon to die.
“To my people,” boomed her voice
“The once great and bountiful Human race,
I know not what will befall you,
Trapped on this tiny point in space.
If you are hearing this message,
Then to you I am long dead.
Why am I of such importance?
I am the very last purebred.
They say you need an explanation,
And it should come from one of your own.
As to why you have been left on Earth,
Cold and all alone.
At one time you were so beautiful,”
She gestured to her face,
“It pains me to think what you look like now
It must truly be a disgrace.
The day we crawled out of the mud,
Human kind knew we were unique.
And it did not take much time
Before we reached our peak.
So advanced was our technology
We took hold of time and space.
We explored, we learned, we conquered,
Putting lesser species in their place.
They spread their dominion,
That brave ancient breed.
Unified the galaxy,
Until the traitors did secede.”
Her regal posture broke,
Anger flashed deep within in her eyes.
“The war took all those dear to me
And stripped them of their lives.
A coalition of seven races,
Those we had subjugated,
Decided they were as good as us.
Their egos so inflated.
Using the knowledge we so generously
Gifted to their kind,
They fought us back in greater numbers
Than our entire race combined.
They never wanted simple victory.
Much more sinister was their end goal.
The traitors wanted to change us,
And have the humiliation take its toll.
And now I’m here to speak with you,
On the last day of my life.
To record for you these words,
And then to face their blood stained knife.”
She shook the anger from her face,
Steadied herself as well she could.
“I said I was the last Purebred,
As we’re about to be changed for good.
The human race is but one people,
No matter what you may now believe.
Working hard, as one, together,
There’s nothing we can’t achieve.
The seven species knew this,
They came in all colors and sizes.
And thus it took much longer for them
To agree to compromises.
Insert some form of prejudice,
And a people can’t unite.
How can you conquer other species,
When amongst your own you fight?
Those children born after the war,
Many I was forced to bear,
Have been taken and mutated,
And taught it’s wrong for them to care.
Our language needs not be learned,
We find the words when we are young.
Yet they force the children to forget,
And teach them foreign tongues.
Scattered all across the world,
Segregated by common mutation
With no knowledge of their past,
They’ll harbor hatred for other nations.
This will be how you have lived
For these past 30,000 years.
Perhaps by now you’ve grown accustomed
To lives of war, bigots, and fear.
If you have, then I beg of you.
Wipe all hatred from your mind.
Forgive the scars that caused you
To distrust others of your kind.
Know that this was not their fault,
Know that their minds were so programmed
That they feared those who looked different,
And those they could not understand.”
She then spun gracefully around,
In an attempt to hide her expression.
Before leaving us with her final words,
The Last Purebred’s confession.
“I have a fear that too much time has passed.
A fear that shakes me to my core.
We can’t restore our former glory,
If you’re not humans anymore.”
The sphere snapped shut, and we were
Left with the most terrible decision.
To tell the world, or to keep it silent.
That was our position.
We could go on like nothing had changed,
Pretend the sphere never awoke.
As if it were some otherworldly tease.
And we were the butt of the joke.
The decision hinged on whether we thought
Life before was better
We were vain, pig-headed, even evil.
But at least we stood together.
We could restore the human empire,
United under one cause.
The expanse of technology and power,
But what about humanity’s flaws?
Have we as a species yet received the lesson
We were trapped on this planet to learn?
We’ve had millenia to change, but
If it has worked is difficult to discern.
Who were we all but proof?
Proof that humanity had stayed the same.
Tossed aside by our own people,
We shared the seven species’ pain.
We came to a decision.
One to which we’d all adhere.
That life was once far better.
Life before the sphere.
