It was a while ago,

The last of the humans had to go.

I wonder where they could be,

Will there be a new earth we will see?

Or are humans in some hiding?

Oh! My thoughts are ever-riding.

I embark on a new journey

On the back of a being

Which humans called bumble bee

Towards the answers, I am seeking

Oh, before I tell you about my adventure,

Must I tell you about myself and my inventor?

I am what humans called a microbe

We are spread all over the globe

But I am different from others

I was born to be tougher

A lady in a white coat made me so

She took my ancestors, added some genes and allowed them to grow

And so I became what I am

My photos were all up in the Gram

I have some unique powers,

I can tolerate hot showers

Toxins and pollutants cannot take my kill

I can scourge for food in the debris or spill

I don’t need oxygen in the air

I know you might think this is rare

I reproduce by fission and make more of my kind

But what is our purpose? I am yet to find.

My inventor, too, left with other people

Our chances of meeting again seem feeble

But I have the company of my daughters

Who are filling this adventure with laughter

Not only humans, I see many beings are missing

Oh, the old days. I should stop reminiscing

And must, with focus, keep treading

My answers will soon be in spotting

I met my cousin on the way

Usually, they have a lot to say

But this time, by coughing and puking, they welcome

Their situation seemed worrisome

They tell me it is lead and sulphur

The pollutants making them suffer

They wished they had powers to resist it like me

So a day another, they could see

The happy days of the past flash before my eyes

They are never easy, the goodbyes

With no choice, I bid my cousins a farewell

No one responds to my grieving yell

My attention is caught by a weird odour

I take a look closer

Only to find the bumblebee, my vehicle

Taking the last of her breaths in a situation critical

The smell was its decaying body

Why is the climate so shoddy?

With all lives around lost, my spirits have curled

Oh! Is this what they call the end of the world?

Will I have to be alone till the end of eternity?

Or is this the end of eternity?

I have more questions than where I started from

All the pain and loss have made me numb

Lost and lonely, where do we go,

Would be great to have a friend or so

A gush of hot stream

By looks lava, it seems

Carries us to a place unknown

Thank god, for our flagella; we could swim on our own

All around was polluted soil

Blocking all its pores was oil

Trapped inside was a small microbial family

Of which, all members were perishing rapidly

Dwindling oxygen reserve

Was the reason they confirm

They plead with me to hold their hand

So the pain of demise they could withstand

What happened next, shook us all

Did the calamity come to a stall?

Some dying members of their clan

Gained consciousness in a short span

While some were lost

Fossils will have them embossed

But what we just saw

I’m still in awe

How were some lives saved all of a sudden

Did someone press an undo button?

Cheerful hysteria broke, and everyone celebrated

An old one from their clan soon stated

They could yank oxygen from the air

As if someone had answered their prayer

With all eyes upon our brood

My memory was renewed

I remembered how my inventor added some gene

Responsible for making us an air filtration machine

Oh! She would talk about how those genes

Could filter nitrogen for us by any means

And concentrate oxygen in the air

Leaving it as a spare

I wish I could recall more

How I wish I hadn’t called her a bore

This is so good to be true

Could I have helped my cousins too?

The striking epiphany

Tinging in my ears like a symphony

How I wish I at least tried

My cousins would not have died

My new buddies help me cope

And say there might still be hope

For now, come what may, together we will stay

We called each other BFFs, Ah! What a cliche

We found ourselves a new home

For human’s sake, we call it a microbiome

Playing by the day and recalling old times by night

Life with friends, seems rather all right

Days passed by, sooner than we realised

Our clans grew, and more soil we localised

Twirling and twisting my flagella, I hit something

A twig with a leaf, Oh! Is it a sapling?

A plant back from extinction?

It seems straight out of fiction

We all gather around this wonder

An old one delightedly hugs her

All ready to take the credit, I step up

Only to be interrupted by a cough abrupt

A member of our friend’s clan

Says how our unison was the universe’s plan

How could this plant and our unison be related

For her answer, I waited

She told me how they were carbon dioxide fixers

And our combination worked like elixirs

I was totally tongue-tied

Broken into pieces was my pride

With a new lens, I look back and see

My strength alone is meagre

This journey was never about just me

We can be powerful only when together.