Apocalypse Swap

Ann K. Schwader

Apocalypse Swap

Apocalypse was simple once. A phone
the shade of midnight sunrise rang somewhere
in Washington or Moscow, & the moan

of missiles filled our momentary air
to bursting with their urgency. One flash
before the sirens’ silence – then who cared

what happened next? We fixed our hopes on ash
& shadows, all the madness burned away
forever. Now we watch a planet trashed

& drowning in Antarctica’s decay
depopulate – too slowly – in its shroud
of satellites.  How many years afraid

before whatever exit we’ve endowed
our future with? I miss that mushroom cloud.

_______________

Ann K. Schwader’s poems have recently appeared in Spectral Realms, Dreams & Nightmares, Star*Line, Abyss & Apex, and Weird Fiction Review. Her most recent collection, Dark Energies (P’rea Press 2015) was a Bram Stoker Award Finalist. She was the SFPA Grand Master for 2018.

Editor’s Notes:Terza rima is an Italian form poem consisting of interlocking rhyming tercets. The image is a collage of a red telephone (StickPng), the trifoil radiation symbol (Iconfinder), and a mushroom cloud (Nuclear Blast Wallpapers Group).

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