Sanitary Apocalypse Lyrics
We used to think it would be
Global warming, and oh, before,
Remember computer nightfall, then
So scared of AI, Y2K, B4
Even then there were other threats like the A bomb
Plagues, pestilence as well
The fiery hand of God, but no
In the end we sprayed and wiped everything gone
In the end we sprayed and wiped our whole world away
Uninhabitable
*
In this world of walls of marble white
Like the inside of an egg
The spotless surface stretches forever
In this world of halls of blinding light
We survive on dirt pills
Dwindling now, they stave away the fever
*
Clara has a broken digital camera
Erstwhile her children on the smashed up screen
Travelling through Oslo with her husband Tom
Looking for live ones and a reason to be
Tom is on the way out unless they find some pills
She sings him a song with little hope that he’ll get well
*
Clara’s Farewell Song
*
North is where the island is the travellers used to say
Not long ago hundreds of them passed her day by day
Shelter they had spoken of off the coast of Norway
Embedded in the ice were dirt and plants, remnants
Of life, mutual life
Every footstep echoes cold
And shatters up and down
This hallway is so long
Now just blinding bright and lonely
She tries not to look back
She tries not to look at them, gaunt, wide-eyed by the road
But Clara’s not so sure
She can’t unravel now
*
There never used to be ice this far south
She puts the last dirt pill in her mouth
She steps onto an ice floe, pushing out
Out to sea
*
She drifts upon this ice floe, while the mainland sinks from view
She sinks into a dream
She wanders through
Her former life before the whitewashed world
She hears the sounds of family, back when the world was green
*
Dream sequence
*
Waking up in a colourful room
With a male figure sitting there beside the bed
Speaking to her in a calm voice
You’re safe, I’m a nurse, we will look after you
Clara rises, looks around her
Seeing flowers by the bed
Out the door and in the hallway
Lilies and roses and hydrangeas
The nurse explains they brought her to the shelter
Found drifting on an icefloe at sea
Surviving scientists exhuming from the ice
All they brought along and found to freeze
He takes her then to the dining
Room to meet a senior counsellor
The dining room is massive
It’s bustling – full of food, and people, and smiles, water cooler banter
The counsellor is waiting to meet the new survivor
She takes Clara in her arms
*
You must be worried about our chances
About all that you’ve been through
There is room to take heart
Although we may be wiped out yet
In our history, our entire time on earth
We’ve made it through worse than this
…It’s ok.