i close my eyes doomed to ingest
all the paper, all the dust
all your melted steel plunging to earth

i hear the sirens, taste the cement
sucking to my lungs your powdery masts
running in suit and tie

untrained legs no match for the colossus of hail
devouring lampposts, shelling windows
reviving with shards cries of Armageddon

i feel your rumble razor past
dust and documents lashing my breath
with the ghosts of Pearl Harbor
phantoms on deck, choking

jumping
like surreal cremate sprouting from your neck
cashing in jet fuel for waterless sea

i run past the weeping, hands to wetted heads
as pillar two sinks to its death
extracting in its molt the last of morning sun

impaling forever yesterday’s assurances
as i close my eyes and tumbleweed
down the sidewalks of Nagasaki
replaying newsreels shamelessly displayed

©2002, Ken Adams aka Dudley Appleton