A Lowly Chinese Canal Engineer writes:
“Here lie the last Mongols in suits,
they too rode under a banner of FIRE🔥:
Force, Intimidation, Resource Extraction.
They too burned the libraries of the living,
seized the earth with spreadsheets and cannon,
left the original keepers of the land
only ash and a rent receipt. Indigenous peoples were stripped of their lands, displaced, and denied access to the knowledge embedded in their own cultures
They locked what little truth they tolerated
behind gilded gates called universities,
let knowledge ossify in ivory
while the roots of indigenous science
were salted under concrete.
When the epitaph is done,
the engineers will plant gingko saplings
whose leaves will out-read your balance sheets,
whose roots will crack the vaults you thought were eternal.
