Where were you when the apocalypse started?
At least zombies are visible
Corona is silent.
They say the world came to a halt,
It didn’t.
It continued on cracked waves,
jolting and spilling,
creaking towards its ports
but sometimes got abandoned.
Everyone became poorer
except for the rich,
who became millionaires, fighting
for one seat on a plane
to the moon when
that money could have
helped thousands. And the rich countries
threw away vaccines
because they hoarded
too many resources and had
too little heart
to donate to lives
thrown off centre.
They say life gets harder
as you grow up
but they failed
to mention children know
of the climate crisis and other
problems that should have been
solved by the adults who made them.
The sea used to carry
wind and water but when ships
packed carelessly to the brim,
for profit, exploded,
dead fish and turtles and dolphins and whales
washed up on shores
and acid crept into arteries of the land
through rivers. Beware of acid rain, they said.
Did it come? Did it
go? Did it travel?
Tell me, where were you when
the end started?
How many layers
did you live in?
How many masks
did you take off?
How many times
did you say you were
okay when you weren’t?
How many letters
of the Greek alphabet
did you learn?
First published by Postscript Magazine in August, 2021.