Pre-Apocolypse- Kay Beckner

Moonless, starless nights

Summer all year long

Ferns and foliage of strawberry blonde

And crisp brown

Black rivers, lakes- rainbow marbled or else dried valleys

Oceans rising

Landmasses s h r i n k i n g

Dirty children drinking dirty water eating dirty scraps

Wads of money changing blood-soaked, uncalloused hands

Old, ignored protest signs, yellow, half buried

Still faintly crying: “human lives > oil”

Sunlight too weak to push its fingers through the haze

Which coats the lungs and throats of any

Not fortunate enough to live

In shiny-clean bunkers

Tucked neatly away

War, Famine, Pestilence, Death all in attendance

Invited by Greed and Gluttony

To earth’s funeral

Kay Beckner