And When Man Is Done

And when man is done, and rolls over and falls asleep, the tides will overwhelm the shores, the walls of the cities will weep, Till the cities sink and the reactors melt down, And the land will be stripped bare by the beasts of the field, And the poisoned fish will foul the air, And the birds will swarm around the dying, And the wind turbines will break, There will be no good water left to drink, And babies will cry from their stomachs' ache, And the gentlest of men will eat his own young While wild dogs stare and wait, teeth bared around their hanging tongues, And there will be cracks in the earth, And whole cities will be swallowed, And the batteries and clocks will die, And no one who knows how to fix them will follow, And the sun will flare, And the trees will ignite, And the sun will fall dim, And the brightness of day will be winter twilight, And the earth will at last be unchained, As the sun relaxes its hand, to roll over and fall asleep, the sleep of a grain of sand.