Nineteen

1972- They Tell Us It Is Gone

and that we shouldn't be afraid.
The danger is sealed away in bunkers in Soviet Russia,
and that's who we should really be afraid of. The Soviets.

They are angered by our ambivalence.
A little miffed that we are not hailing them as conquering heroes in spectacles.
Rejoice! proclaim the press releases. Our children will live.
The price of plastic goods will fall. And tourism will become viable in Somalia.
We have made the world smaller!

We are not so sure.
The fear of the pox has been bred into us, same as wolves.
(children don't wake up crying over car crashes)
We got this far on our ancestor's antibodies.
Tardition moves through our veins like T-cells.

Extinction is nothing to be ashamed of, they announce from the podium.
However
from our perspective in the audience, things blur.
In the glare, their white jackets glint like Mantilla armor.
Fifteen million is a big number.
Somewhere in the tangled strings of our systems,
we remember.


Mostly inspired by this photo here