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.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen 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.