21 April

Day 21 (1)

No prompt - inspired by documentary on the Cold War

Early Warning 

Not much changes, not even the wind

wailing at the early warning station

As the retired major takes aim at city folk

After the cloud- we have to maintain order

And the plutonium farmer with his high-click cows

says all we need is strong men to keep peace

And the lady from the WI advises makeup for morale

and clean white underwear

The council draws up useless plans that will never work

in striplit chambers below municipal streets

The early warning blinks, standby, with no siren

Instead, a man will cycle, shouting out the end of the world

Keep waterbuckets for a firestorm

Store blankets for the endless winter

Make your own hazmat suits 

Dig your own shelter

Instructions on How to label your beloved

A guide to Shallow-burying your dead

And years before, the boys on Christmas Island

larking in the sun ( I’d only ever been to Blackpool)

Wave the officers goodbye- off to a safer vantage,

all dressed in radiation white

then turn to face the bomb (these being orders)

expectant children at a firework show

You can see the new sun being born in flames

You can see, in flames, all the birds fall down

The sea rains black

and the fish twist in the rain

You know that no distance is safe,

but you are less safe than others

Covering your eyes, 

You can see the very bones of your own hand