Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer looked out at Los Alamos
He saw the desert turning white even though his eyes were closed
And when his sight returned and the fallout cleared the air
He saw a world forever changed and in a state of disrepair

And that's just the way it goes
That's just the way it goes
We build and burn and learn and then forget it, I suppose
And when a bomb drops in Nevada and irradiates a town
We'll put the lead inside the caskets
And we'll leave them in the ground

Larry Speakes had heard about this queer disease
It was 1983 when he was asked about HIV
"It doesn't bother me," he says
"Why? Do you think I'm gay?"
The room bursts into laughter and the question fades away

And that's just the way it goes
That's just the way it goes
We let our best sons die for our good Christian moral codes
And when forty million perish as a punishment for sin
We'll keep our quilts and know that we will see this all again

And that's just the way it goes
That's just the way it goes
We'll hurt the ones we love so we can live the lives we chose
And that's just the way it goes
That's just the way it goes
And I wish that I was different from the monsters of my prose