Archeological Digs

Porcelain, painted and gilt,
with plastic pieces carefully placed,
implies air filled with silt
so thick that sunshine’s been defaced—
yet music still carried its lilt.

Ears uncovered could hear
a beauty once well-loved and known
before that fateful year
was presaged by many a spying drone—
the heralds of dreadful fear.

What creatures had they been,
such able creators of fragile beauty,
to start what they could not win,
unaware that survival’s their primal duty?
We sift through the dust they’re in.