I'll Never Meet Them

You know, I’ll tell you

What the problem is, Cliff

They keep talking about

Twenty-fifty, twenty-sixty

I’m seventy-six years-old

What do I have?

Let’s say I’m as lucky

As it gets

And I have fifteen years left

Okay, that’ll take me

Fifteen years short

Of Twenty-fifty

And they know that

And so when they talk to me

About all this

About the weather

And the rising oceans

I think they know

What the obstacle is, right?

Because I’m not going to be here

For any of that

I’ll be there

For some hurricanes

And forest fires

And all that

But I won’t be around

By the time

It gets to be this

Worldwide

Inescapable

Problem

So they start to talk to me

About my grandkids

Ohhhh, my grandkids

And my great-grandkids

Those poor souls

What ever will they do?

And here’s the problem--

And of course

You can’t blame them

For trying that tactic

Because it should work

And we can’t tell them

I can’t tell them

Why it doesn’t

But we both know why

It’s because I don’t give a fuck

About my grandkids

I mean, I love them

I do

But once I’m dead

I’m dead

I can’t care about them

After that

And my great-grandkids?

Their kids?

People I’m never even

Going to meet?

You know what you call

People you’re never

Going to meet?

Strangers

You want me to care

About strangers?

Just because

They’re going to be

In my bloodline?

I can’t do that

Psychologically, I mean

Psychologically it’s impossible

There’s proof of it

That you can’t care

About people you don’t know

Not really

So this argument

That somehow

My great-great grandkids

Are different

Because they’re connected to me--

I am never going to meet them

And so

I cannot care about them

Now, if that makes me

A bad member

Of the global community

So be it

But remember

I grew up in a family

With eleven brothers and sisters

Not caring about anybody

But the people you know

Wasn’t considered callous

It was sensical

You’d lose your mind

Trying to worry about

People you haven’t met

Let alone people

Who haven’t even

Been born yet

My generation had our problems

And we had to fix them

And now the next generation

Is going to get their problems

And I wish them well

But I don’t care to

Wish away their problems

For them

We’ve all got to have

Problems

That’s just how

It works