The Land was Barren, the Sky was Black . . .

The land was barren, the sky was black

no birds, no clouds, no trees

no stars, just the celestial

pall of dark matter, cold of space

no moon, but red

cooked blood is all it was

no sun, but grey

no wind, just pulsating waves

radiation’s silent concussion

no sound, just stillness screaming

the man moved heavy

a lone one of few remaining

trudging through plutonium mist

from a hole he had emerged

like a festered, glowing screwfly

on the decimated earth become

an all encompassing skeletal

hiroshima nightmare,

chernobyl’s chemical desolation,

with mottled glows of utter black’s opague

with shades or radiation’s

hues’ of phantoms’ greys

he wore his mask, to earth’s surface

a solitary radiation castaway

carrying his epidural pen, a feeble ploy

against death’s rems throes, owed

to those beneath,

human moles awaiting scout’s return

within their doomsday shelter

atropine coursed in his veins

beneath his hazmat suit

he shone halogen’s light beam

into the dark, all directions’ circle

could not see but black

his light tried to cut through

as if to pierce a tunnel in coal,

yet the lumens shrank as if afraid

to pierce the pitch

they gave him only scattered

photons at his feet

no solace, all directions blind,

fear’s panic seized, squeezed his throat

aborted path on devastated earth

he wondered why he’d been persuaded

for such a futile quagmire,

a nuclear time had been set

to which he’d been alarmed

minutes to midnight’s atomic clock

and wished instead now vain,

should have shunned in retrospective ire,

have preferred an instant death,

ground zero vaporized

he turned despaired,

fearing direction’s loss, became like lead,

made a pivot back, to a coward’s retreat

to his silo’s womb,

earth vibrated thickly rough

he was knocked down with forceful thud

on radioisotopic ground

ripped his suit, tore his mask

he could not look away,

saw a light far high, like a quasar star;

moving bright across celestial dome,

an arc to reach apogee,

then descended slow

by gravity’s gentle tug to fall

a bursting light of a trillion suns

thermonuclear bomb sent by whom?

triggered by computer glitch,

programmed for this event?

how could man after hell’s exchange

still release another one?

even now in his sordid state

managed to reason’s analyze

months had passed since world war three

he pondered in mortal awe,

what fiend or force, what power could,

for death still thirst,

to send another one

what logic, insanity, credo’s pulse,

uphold to full epidemy,

how many more to come?

as he crawled back to his hollow hole

hell’s gins danced and laughed

upon the lap of shiva’s bloody gun

writhing, whirling, devilish joy,

evil specters mocked and rejoiced

in the black’s eternal void,

of man’s remaining atmosphere

his extermination now complete

they reveled in dirge 

of rancid joy, evil din

as another star descended,

slowly lulled by gravity

from its fullest apogee

for another burst

to partake and prolong

the violent rape

of wobbling earth

in her final throes of death