End of Us

We sit at the dawn of
a brand-new era. Nothing
we've known will be unchanged.
It's hard for me to know
where I should sit to get
the best view. Lord knows
I want to have a good seat
for the end of us. I will be
cheering at the sidelines
as we attempt in vain
to extricate ourselves from
all these messes which are
compounding each other.
Ecologists say the warming
is happening quicker than
expected. Did they miss
that one ecology class one
Friday morning in college
in which it was explained
all our problems will be
mutually reinforcing?
The tundra begins to melt,
it gives off more CO2 and
the tundra melts some more;
the harder we try to fix
our problems, the more
intractable they become;
the more money we spend on
clean up, the more money
clean up needs.

(2008)