Global famine under blackened skies
Permafrost, radiation, darkness
High noon in a nuclear winter
Ozone layer long forgotten
Ultraviolet cancers commonplace
Electromagnetic radiation from above
Thermal and Ionizing radiation from below
Brackish water, salted and contaminated
Fallout storms the new black rollers
Half-lives measured in centuries
Ocean life failing to thrive
Metropolitan areas now empty hives
Craters that go on for miles
Global Cooling and its new meaning
Survival relies on random exclusions
Being in the right place during the wrong
Survivors counting Rads and losing hair
Beta, gamma, protons, neutrons
What difference does it make?
Potassium iodine worth its weight in gold
Reproduction a foregone conclusion
Re-population not a consideration
The dead lie in state, gruesome reminders
Strange new coloration of the landscape
Stream beds empty from vaporization
Buildings shifted from rapid expansion
Shock-waves and structural art
Twisted metal, powdered stone
Stragglers with flash burns that never heal
Ground Zero is everywhere
In catastrophe nothing matters but humanity
So few remain, even fewer stay sane
Overload on pain and suffering
The first few months, the worst ones pass
When the dying finally move on
And the living decide to keep living
Reverting to all out cooperation
Language, sex, or skin color ignored
Survival and the bonds it forms
Irrelevant recall of who you were
In this new world everyone’s an amateur
The goal to live another day
Promoting peace in all they say
Nuclear winter punishment
For sins the few survivors did not commit
Technology, power, globalization
All complacent in stoic participation
The needless death of a generation
Summary
As human beings, we are often challenged with situations which test our mettle to an unexpected and unheard of level. The impact and after-effects of global nuclear war would rewrite the book and redefine the term “unheard of.” Yet, despite the horror and huge loss of life, humankind would not just disappear. In fact, we can expect that any remaining survivors would find each other and immediately begin the process of rebuilding.
Links to Other Dystopian Works
The Night Whispered Death in His Ear
Lucid Oppression – Slavery Through Technology
The Utopia Found in Dystopian Poetry – A Writer’s Perspective
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