The World After People

One year ago the last humans disappeared
Wiped out by plague and disease
Leaving towns, cities and villages empty
Car parks are covered in leaves.
 
Many dog species are extinct
Others cross- bred with wolves
They hunt in packs during daylight hours
The streets and building stand empty
And the parks are covered with flowers
 
The underground railways are flooded
Since the pumps no- longer work
And the gardens are becoming overgrown.
Throughout the deserted streets
Wild animals have started to roam...
 
It’s now been five years since mankind disappeared;
The roads are covered in moss
A few cities have burned to the ground
Leaving piles of ashes and dust.
 
Burned out timber homes provide
Nutrients for new life;
Clover, then shrubs and then trees
Then fauna returns to the land in abundance
And flowers make pollen for bees…
 
Fifteen years later many places remain;
Windows broken, buildings now home to rats
Rusting vehicles are covered with vegetation
And are home to birds, pigeons and bats.
 
As each decade passes the cities look more like forests
As the buildings begin to fall down
The artificial landscape’s being eaten away:
Flora now covers the ground…
 
Three hundred years later the seas are teeming with life
And forests cover much of the land
Nature has largely reclaimed this planet of ours
Not all that much remains of man.
 
Here and there steel structures poke above the trees
Much brickwork and plastic is buried.
The pyramids remain in the Egyptian desert
With the atmosphere both baking and arid.
 
The presidents’ faces still look down
From Mount Rushmore
And the Great Wall of China remains
The Hoover dam still stands on the Colorado river
But there’s no-one to mention their names.
 
Nature will bounce back when we are gone;
Plant and animal life will continue
But after hundreds of years, looking from above
Will present a greatly altered view.
 
The world will have become in part a rainforest
With rivers flowing down to the oceans
Where the fish breed and sharks roam
And coral reefs thrive
All thanks to Nature’s devotion.

MDC

(This poem was inspired and influenced by the documentary "Life After People").