You may take back your shipment of portents–
We don’t need them. We already know.
The cracks in the floor, thank you, yes:
The ground beneath our feet is unstable. We know.
The fallen unmarked chickadee: now really
We’ve learned, we can go any minute. We know.
Killer hornets, Krakatoa, floods, locusts–
The scale is grand, the message trite. We know, we know.
Let’s have lilacs,Let’s have sunshine, ice cream, new books
A fresh clean wall, we’ve already seen this writing.
Put down the chalk. We know.