Letter to the Next Visitors

Hello to you who reads this,
And however you may have found my message
On this ancient tablet of silicon.
In my mind
Your runes are different to ours.
I hope
They provide my words in perfect clarity.

I cannot foresee
What you will find of our home
When you get here.
Perhaps we have greeted you
With open arms, smooth and patchy ones,
And we have made you,
In your own extraordinary way,
Laugh and marvel
At the quaintness of our beacons and our parlour tricks
That we have named technology
And progress.

Being from a different time,
I fear that such a greeting
Has not enveloped you.
I bear a future shame
Of winds that bite and sting
With heat and acids,
Such that you must shield yourselves
As you bluntly scavenge for my civilisation.

I fear that you will simply see
On tablets such as this
What birthed such heat
And pain and hard particulates upon this planet.
The words, the deeds, the fires stoked,
The threats and warnings, black as coal
And just as easily buried
Or unearthed.

My plea to you
Who sees this, then,
Is that you know that there was more,
That you believe in snowy hills
Adorned with cool, green foliage,
A wild of myriad infinites
That played and hunted,
Erect, majestic, eternally surviving,
That you imagine orange skies at sunset
And blazing pink at sunrise,
That you construct
In your subconscious mass
A city, grey and gold
And brick and leaves,
And then a second, smaller, prouder
And a third, the largest, dazzling in its lights,
Until each one is clearly mapped for you,
Emblazoned with eclectic patterns,
Houses, markets, theatres,
Playgrounds, schools and hospitals
And everything that stands upright and strong
To hold society in the longing, teaching embrace
Of created to creator.

We were a fascinating people.
I keep alight the spark of hope
That we can still fascinate you,
You observant nomads that should inevitably find our home.
Whatever the means of your marvelling,
I hope that you indeed can marvel.
So, I will hold my growing dread in stark suppression,
Stay true to my intention
That this message
Reach you
In the end
And that you pass on this belief
To the next visitor who might discover us.