(Diceros bicornis longipes)

Our goals collided. We just wanted grass,
you humans craved our horns (and didn’t care
that they were made of hair).

You were no rhino-haters, though your wishes
for scleroprotein dishes from a nose
were keen. Could you suppose

that you would zap a species? Superstitious
primate! More remorseless than a croc!
Horn healing? Poppycock!

Earth’s memories of us will quickly pass
like orchids at the start of the dry season,
like you, who’ve lost your reason.

(Appeared in Insectageddon at Quora.)