If we had two years' notice,
Of our world's impending doom,
What might humanity do?

Would we bend our knees and pray?
Would chaos reign supreme?
Would we quietly despair?

Would our flame shine brightest then?
Or would we embrace darkness?
I suspect we would do both.

But I doubt we would give up,
I hope we'd go out fighting,
For one final, great lost cause.

Ingenuity is ours,
I believe we would unite,
To save humanity's seed.

Humanity would survive,
Some on space stations perhaps,
Others would flee underground.

Moon bases might yet be built,
And perhaps even on Mars,
That human kind might go on.

An asteroid can destroy,
All that humankind has built,
But not the human spirit.

_____

This is a teaser poem about one of my longest short stories, Mars: Genesis 2.0 about humanity's struggle to preserve its seed in the face of an extinction event. You can download the short story (one of 13 in my Echoes of the Mind's Eye collection) free through 3/10/2022 but only at the following link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/428820