We are the centuries

“We are the centuries.
We are the chin choppers and the golly woppers,
and soo we shall discuss the amputation of your head.
We are your singing garbage men, Sir and Madam, and we march in cadence behind you
(…)
We have your eoliths and your mesoliths and your neoliths. We have your Babylons and your Pompeiis, your Caesars and your chromium-plated (vital-ingredient-impregnated) artifacts.
We have your bloody hatchets and your Hiroshimas. We march in spite of Hell, we do -
Atrophy, Entropy, and Proteus Vulgaris,
(…)
We bury your dead and their reputations.
We bury you. We are the centuries.

p.259-60, ‘A Canticle For Leibowitz’, Walter M. Miller Jnr.