Vanishing Animals

Time,
stretching out, encompasses curtains,
on distant savannas, of shimmering heat.
And animals vanish:
ibex and antelope;
elephant; grouse.
Here once, now going or gone.
And time vanishes now.
Animals gone, one has no focus.
Moldering greenery, mute,
moves mainly in wind --
pliant life, submitting to breezes,
passive in sun. Rooted in spots
not chosen or won.
Plants do not vanish.
They prosper.
We do not prosper.
We vanish, as animal,
and go hardly noticed.
A dirge,
as animals vanish.
We vanish unnoticed.