Prepared for atom bombs when we were 8,
we ducked and covered as the school ran drills.
And then the teachers tried to educate
our class till we developed earthquake skills.
So California kids were taught to dread
a cold war that was destined not to burn,
and battered with “the big one” fears instead,
as often as vaccines. What did we learn?

The end could come from sudden bomb or quake,
from angry men or mystifying God.
So few of us suspected we would make
the worst ourselves, from climate change and sod
built over till the conflagrations grow.
It does no good to say “I told you so.”