After the end.

Darkness covered the world like a suffocating blanket.
Smoke trailed from chimneys and bonfires.
Doors closed, nailed shut.
Some stand wide open or are missing.
The world has ended.
People just make of it what they can.

There was a party going on.
The last one.
No more fun after that one.
Just death.
Someone climbing a building for fun.
I wondered how long it would take to rebuild.

The sun comes up on the horizon.
The fires have burned down for now.
They’ll light them at dusk.
Now dawn greets the world again.
As it always has.
As it always will.

We had a car once.
I was still little then.
My parents drove it around.
It seemed a little silly to me.
I wish I’d walked more back then.
I still had my legs?

I sit in my chair on the balcony.
I greet my old friend the sun.
They are nice to me here.
Carry me up and down the stairs.
Protect me from the savages.
Even a cripple can live here.

Gone are the days of the skyscrapers.
Fools who placed themselves on pedestals.
Towers that tickled the herds of clouds.
Lives of decadence and disconnection.
I like the world better now.
Sometimes I wish I still had my legs.

It’s been fourteen years since the bombs dropped.
I came here ten years ago.
Dropped off by some travellers with a salvaged car.
Now I tell stories to the children and adults alike.
Stories of the old days and of the new.
Here humanity lives on.