Dec 2012
when
it became dark
it was the slow steady spinning
of the world we had to blame
while rockets huddled in their holes
waiting for the year zero
we could not count down
to cause, or pause
while superpowers chose an illusive détente
we mostly sipped complacency
from false hope cups
the world kept on spinning
the missiles slept
our nightmares became past tense
with no promise of future perfect
then
some-where
some-how
some-one
some
time
moved but a single digit,
a scrawny feeble fiddle on an impotent
OMNIPOTENT CATACLYSMIC APOCALYPTIC UBER DESTRUCTIVE
hand
and
now
our darkness does not wait
for the casual yawing
of our few sextillion tons
it is there for all
to see for all times
though the times are no longer
measured as years
for stones, bones and ash
have no fears
it became dark
it was the slow steady spinning
of the world we had to blame
while rockets huddled in their holes
waiting for the year zero
we could not count down
to cause, or pause
while superpowers chose an illusive détente
we mostly sipped complacency
from false hope cups
the world kept on spinning
the missiles slept
our nightmares became past tense
with no promise of future perfect
then
some-where
some-how
some-one
some
time
moved but a single digit,
a scrawny feeble fiddle on an impotent
OMNIPOTENT CATACLYSMIC APOCALYPTIC UBER DESTRUCTIVE
hand
and
now
our darkness does not wait
for the casual yawing
of our few sextillion tons
it is there for all
to see for all times
though the times are no longer
measured as years
for stones, bones and ash
have no fears
alternate title: Carl Sagan's dream
My generation was the first to come of age with the threat of total annihilation of the species (and likely all life) by nuclear holocaust--we had h-bomb drills in which we would hide under desks or be herded into the basements of our schools (some of us knowing full well these were futile endeavors since all out nuclear war would have been an extinction level event) In the decades since the end of the cold war, we have let this ultimate fear slip into the background, assuming a saner reality now exists...another illusion?
My generation was the first to come of age with the threat of total annihilation of the species (and likely all life) by nuclear holocaust--we had h-bomb drills in which we would hide under desks or be herded into the basements of our schools (some of us knowing full well these were futile endeavors since all out nuclear war would have been an extinction level event) In the decades since the end of the cold war, we have let this ultimate fear slip into the background, assuming a saner reality now exists...another illusion?
