The World Is Falling - Mirah

We have spent rudderless nights waking up on a sail of regret

She’d sit up, upon the bed, and angled to the west

Dipped our fingers in, oh, the water, it was wet

Dampness and shame, salty curls around the napes of our necks

Punctured by the compass needles, riled with certainty

The rescue boats are useless when none of us can agree

Hear the briny call, the ocean’s gusty gnashing of her teeth

Breaking up the pretty cups and taking what she needs

There’s a knocking on the hull, you hear it

There’s bones a-rattling under us

We set out without the smarts to fear it

With ignorance and gutless trust

Tell me once again if everything is as it seems

If things are getting better, what’s that crashing down the stream

The wind, you say, the storm that came, remember our retreat

And darker days might come and stay, and signal our defeat

If drug up from the muck, I reel in what I hope will be

A trove of golden apples from the golden apple tree

Flush with fertile seeds, I give them all away for free

For this our people should be known throughout all history

But from here we crouch and watch the plunder

Of the world we built with sweat and love

Why were you not built for wonder

Why will you never get enough

You say when you landed you could tell

That your conquest would go well

Thought you wet yourself with fear

You were sure your god was near

The wind, you say, the storm that came

And darker days might come and stay