The One Left Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

The survivor



The pandemic has taken its toll, the survivors have fled to the woods
the town is full of mice, rats have decided to stay in their sewers
and sea-gulls get fat.
The mice use the zebra crossing and should a car come along
the driver will stop; he is trained to do this.
He-the driver- drives into town where runs out of petrol, sits there
and watches as the sea drain away like bathwater down a plug hole.
He needs insulin and walks home; it is a long walk.
At home, he gets his medicine and fry some bacon and bake a potato
in the micro-oven.
He wonders about his doctor whether she made it into the woods,
collect berries, good for the heart and slimming too.
He sits on the terrace and looks at the sea that is no longer there but
full of dead fish the will stinks for days.
He then switches on the TV and watches endless re-run of himself.