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After
Day One
The bomb when it fell sent the planet to hell
With unrestrained retaliation
The damage was done and the end had begun
With no hope of human salvation
I woke with a scream from that God awful dream
And took my wife into my arms
My thoughts were of lust but she crumbled to dust
And she didn’t respond to my charms
_____
Week Two
The landscape is stark for the ash cloud is dark
And the grass doesn’t grow any more
Few creatures can feast since the fire from the east
Made nothing as good as before
Then came acid rain, that again and again
Burned our skin til it was raw
But if there’s an upside, we now can go outside
The rain doesn’t burn anymore
_____
Year Three
The sidewalks I walked, where good neighbours talked
Are tangled with undergrowth, new
Those neighbours are gone but the heat lingers on
In an atmosphere no longer blue
The place that we once called ‘The city’
Is now thick with ferns, shrubs and trees
As I made a sound, a deer stood its ground
For nowadays no beast ever flees
From what I can see, he eats better than me
My nutrition comes out of a can
This jungle now covers this land, sea to sea
And nothing is scared of a man
_____
Year Ten
Surviving the blast gave the old man a laugh
Until the the Big C hit his bones
His loss has cut Earth’s population in half
I buried him with the unknowns
So now I’m the one to relate what was done
And document how man survived
An earnest presumption that soon came unspun
Ash shadows cannot be revived
_____
Year Twenty
Who might have guessed that the jabs in my chest
Would go unattended by drugs
My diet, I guess, would never impress
As I eat mostly baked beans and bugs
_____
Year — who’s counting?
So, this has been me; last man standing
My journey and journal now done
I leave this world to its rebranding
A process that’s long since begun
It seems I’ve been less than observant
For with these last breaths I have seen
That I, the last human, shall bid my farewell
To a new world that’s vibrant and green
Copyright ©
Terry Flood
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