Another Fine Apocalypse
To reveal and to renew
What was the name of that film
with the actor you like
the one with the hair?
we racked our brains; we remembered at last —
and it all came clear:
an apocalypse small; a relief; a reveal.
What was the name of the law you made then:
that let you buy people? And places? And power?
What was the lie? Was it then, or today?
We racked our brains; it began to come clear:
And when we remembered the sum of the sin:
An apocalypse large; a ransom;
a rout — and it ended the world
as it was, and had been.
Once on a time — in the slow time, the low time,
evolving our time as we took our sweet own time,
to learn to be people who’d grow some:
We grew some, each thousand years falling up
better: but only a little bit; half a tick better.
One small step further; just one martyr kinder;
progress is slow; we are not out of pre-school.
