good news everyone in poetry

the world isn’t ending
but we are

the world isn’t ending
there will be a few billion years
before the Earth is swallowed up
in the sun’s menopausal expansion
into a red giant star and
everything east of Mars becomes
a little crisp inside
the sun’s new body

the world isn’t ending
we have poisoned the oceans
we have seeded the sky with
chemicals that burn off our protection
we’ve pumped God-knows-what
into the top soil that we might
extract just a little bit more
go-juice for our cars
but the arc of history is wide
the arc of history tends to bend back
to where it is supposed to be
after a little while
once we have killed ourselves death
with short-sightedness and greed
homeostasis will start to kick in
slowly healing the scars we left
while we were killing ourselves

the world isn’t ending
but we are
it’s gonna keep on keeping on
after healing for a little while
but it’s gonna keep doing its thing
I’d like to stick around though
to watch for as long as I can
though I do understand
why so many people don’t
they want to be special
they want to witness the sinking of the boat
they wanna be there when the fireworks go off
see the last smoke before
dying of the cough
if they can find out
whose God was right
they’re totally happy
to turn out the lights
myself I’m not keen
on giving up the fight

the world isn’t ending
but we are
unless we stop being greedy for answers
recommitt ourselves to wonder and love
for each other not the ending
or some monsters above
even though the firework might make you smile
let’s just agree
to put it off
for a little while