Poem: Awash in Fire and Water

You never got ready for the end of the world
There was no gas mask gathering dust under your couch,
No jugs of water, no cans of meat, no duct tape.
You refused to fall in love with disaster and death.

Your emergency escape plan was pitiful. A car?
Come on. The end of the world came down as a hammer
Slamming dark down on the blood-soaked steets.
The fire came up and the lights went out.

We listened to a radio of emptiness. Dead men crawled
on the side of the road while mothers fought each other
over bread, their talons out, with glittering, desperate
eyes. It was a world of foul water and pregnant hopes.

You never got ready for the end of the world
And so you never made it through.
We all thought something better would lie
on the other side of THE END.