The Sound of Seven Trumpets - a poem by Chris Zachariou

Nuclear War

Armageddon has begun.

Can you not hear the sound

of seven trumpets?

Noah's ark is sinking fast.

Time has stopped and all that

lives is going to die.

Eagles swoop down

on the little white doves
tearing their flesh apart.

Vultures dressed as lions

come out of mushroom clouds

spreading death across the land.

Villages and cities burn.
Corpses lay on mountain sides

and maggots feast on rotting flesh.

In bloodied seas and murky rivers
drowned men with bloated bodies
go floating on to the water.

Mother, Father

go and look for your son

go and look for your daughter

go looking for each other.

Mother, Father
don't you know, tonight

is going to be your turn to die?