Parenting at The End of the World

Two days ago we learned
we have twenty years
--if that--
before it's over
before we reach the end of the world

I would roll over and go back to sleep except
I'm a mother
of a child
who will be twenty five
when the world ends.

So I sit up
and wonder how to wipe the sleep from my eyes
and fix this.

Eat less meat
Stop driving
Start composting
Start planning
Stop dreaming

I cannot stop this. The end is coming but here is the thing:

It has always been the end of the world. 

Slavery
Poverty
Plague
First contact
The First World War
The potato famine
Every famine
The Depression
Every depression
The Second World War
The Cold War
Turf Wars
Every war

For every mother who has ever lived the end of the world has loomed
For every mother who has ever lived the end of the world was real

The difference this time is that it's happening to all of us
and for once in our
short, sad history
this particular genocide just might be
deserved.