Said The Sun To The Earth. Poem by Warren Atherton

From the east rose a Sun on a pale azure sky
To a landscape of barren earth-red.
The last filament gone without hue, nor a cry,
No more life, every molecule dead.

Raging winds full of dust radiate from this Sun,
Permeating an atmosphere thin.
No more air, acid rain – the carcinogen Gun,
Killed the Man, killed his wife and their kin.

Ribonucleic strands fossilize in the sand,
While their hosts bake like bread on the Earth.
All around scattered bones, desiccate to the land,
One last trace to the man and his worth.

“Say you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t?
Time to vote, mark your cross on the spot.
False their promise that ‘They will! ’ Will you cry out when they won’t?
But your cries come too late - they ‘Did not! ’

Inter-planetary craft, you’re too late, turn around,
What was earth’s now a rock floating by.
You may watch as I sear of the dust on its’ ground
As I sit in my pale, crimson sky.”

“Call-a-hush”, cried the Earth, “Close your eyes, go to sleep,
If you wake you might see me no more.
All you’ll see, if you see, through your tears, if you weep,
Is my heart broken down to the core.”