The Last Redoubt

  Dancing slowly in a chemical shower

  Finding ways to count the hours

  The flow stops but you don’t care

  Decon, econ, it’s a cruel world out there.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Bouncing a ball into a thick steel door,

  Counting the dents that came before

  Thump, thump, thump like a cold mechanism

  As you dream of a place outside this prison.

  Tapping away at a well worn touchscreen

  A relic of times that used to be.

  The bunker’s safe, sterile and clean.

  The outside is barren and ugly; obscene

  Hydroponics, such a bright cheerful green

  As you work and toil for barely a bean.

  You’re told it’s rationing or population control

  But dying slowly is no choice at all.

  At last too much, you’ve taken your leave.

  Overrode the controls, took a second to grieve

  And now gaze in shocked awe at the devastation

  A planet man-made barren by radiation.