Archeologists found a fossil that captured
ancient insects having sex. It reveals
the mating position customary among froghoppers
about two hundred million years ago. In fact,
the particular sub-species, whose emissaries
had been caught in action, went extinct
but descendants of  their close relatives
are still around diligently doing the same thing
in the same way. It’s exciting to learn
how persistent the insectual orientation is!
While its efficacy ought to be respected,
such a strict commitment to a single arrangement
betrays a lack of inventiveness and initiative.

With humans it’s a different story.
Unlike froghoppers and other bugs, our kind
employs a broad variety of copulating techniques,
showing sophistication unattainable by any other
creatures, hippopotami and mollusks included.
What is going to happen to this achievement
after homo erectus gets wiped out of existence
by natural causes or some man-made disaster?
Guess what, there will be no shortage
of our amorous fossils to collect and explore.
But who will succeed us? Robots?
I cannot imagine Kubrick-style AI dolls
following Kama Sutra instructions, can you? 

And even if you can that’s your imagination
not theirs. When production replaces reproduction
the term screwing relates exclusively to nuts
and bolts. It is possible, though, the next civilization
will be built not by robots but by insects.
They emerged before us and, presumably,
will outlive us. Primate’s mating peculiarities
are as foreign to them as to robots.
If anything they will disregard the dark epoch
of mammalian domination and take a clue
from their ancestors, like these f-hoppers,
doing what instinct dictates and flatly rejecting
bizarre ingenuity of a doomed race.  

Boris Kokotov writes poems and short stories. His original work and translations appeared in  Adelaide, Chiron Review, Entropy, Shot Glass Journal, and The Lake, among others. He lives in Baltimore.