Until Our Dying Days

Every day that I read the news headlines
to find things have only gotten worse,
25,000 killed in a cyclone, $3 trillion dollars
on an unjustified war, nearly a million
civilians dead, every single time I think,
"This must be what Nostradamus saw."
I've decided I can no longer hold such a view.
If Nostradamus actually saw our various crises,
that would mean history has already been written,
that we are but little pawn pieces in a
grander chess game, that not one of us can
do a thing to save the world. Save the world.
God forbid. It's not even that much we should
hope for in refusing to believe Nostradamus and
those like him. Save ourselves is more like it,
to reckon with the frailty of our lives, and
make peace with their inevitable ends.
Until that dark day comes, we do have choices,
we can in fact decide what will be, for better
or worse, we do lord some power over our
collective fate. Nostradamus be damned.
The sun will always rise and set,
the breezes will blow, we will always
fall in love. And we will live, for better or
worse, until our dying days.

(2008)