Inspired by recent events in Hawaii
A Potpourri of Poetic Curiosities
:
The end of the world
by CD Richards Share A Story In A Poem contest entry
The strobe upon the wall is flashing red;
a siren signals status DEFCON 1.
The President is summoned from his bed;
informed the Final Chapter has begun.
"Incoming" reads the glowing LED
as consoles show twelve warheads on the way.
The first will flatten Washington DC;
eleven more will bring down Judgement Day.
The first response will decimate Pyongyang;
Beijing and Moscow soon will both be dust.
"Goodbye Cruel World" — the tune that Pink Floyd sang;
our theme song as we watch the Earth combust.
The raven-messenger has struck again:
"Correction — FALSE ALARM" received in vain.
Author Notes
Using the Elizabethan sonnet form to discuss nuclear war might seem strange. Then again, what is normal about global destruction?
Thanks for reading.
Today's word:
raven-messenger (n.) Someone (or something) that turns up too late to be of use.
The term raven-messenger comes from the story of Noah's Ark in Genesis 8:6-12. According to the story, when the rain stopped, Noah first sent out a raven which didn't return, before sending a dove which returned with an olive branch, indicating it was safe to disembark.
My much-treasured Christmas present for 2017 is a book by Paul Anthony Jones: "The cabinet of linguistic curiosities". Each page contains a descriptive story about some obscure or archaic word. It occurred to me it would be a fun exercise to try and write, each day, a poem featuring the "word of the day" from the book.
Image: CC BY-SA 4.0 License - Original work available at http://door43.org.
