Watching it all crash down
in beautiful waves of radiation.
See the fashion trends,
bruises covered,
and skin sloughing,
laugh at the rainbow nights,
and the blaze in the atmosphere.
This season’s apparel
will be hazmat suits
left over from the last apocalypse.
This time it’s the real thing.
No masks,
but everyone covers up
the lesions on their face,
and douses themselves in perfume
to cover the smell of slow rot.
Blue, and pink, and purple hair
falls out in clumps.
Round and round
the media circles the maypole,
counting down the days to our destruction,
as we pile our dead high in the streets.
Gather under the fallout
of our empathy.
Empty packets of Potassium Iodide
litter the streets,
for we have been long
under this atomic summer sun.
“We defeated Fascism!”
screams a naked man,
streaming live on Disney Plus,
until he loses his bottom jaw,
and falls silent.
Evening comes,
and the sickly green glow
ushers everyone to their homes
before the CHUDS come out.
This will be one for the books.
If there is anyone around
left to read them.
The skeletal hand
of our species
reaches for its full potential.
Tomorrow,
we hit the beaches
to soak up the shockwaves.
Man, I love summer.
DJR – 2023
