After the apocalypse we stopped thinking
Clean water was something poor people just might not have
And spilling oil into the aquifers was part of the cost of doing business.
The cost of doing business came up a lot less,
After the apocalypse; instead we said balance,
We said nurture
And when we said growth, we meant plants, animals, each other.
After the apocalypse we stopped saying “thank God that’s over”
About every year, every month
Every day.
After the apocalypse, we learned to count again:
Your voice, your voice, your voice, one two three all
And not shut up shut up oh God shut up
And not three two one where did they go.
We stopped telling the kids not to ask about that.
After the apocalypse we remembered a lot of old songs
Wrote new ones
Thought we’d cry less but cried more for awhile
Made up a really good recipe for bean soup
That our brother-in-law doesn’t like and that’s okay.
It’s not–
It didn’t turn out to be–
The end of the world
After all.