Death on the Horizon
Horizon turned gray
Banishing the black
And so appears the first ray
Sending the stars back
But the light does not shine
On a single river or pine
No- just a forever wasteland
Endless expanse of dusty-dry sand
And from a cold mountain cave appears
A young girl, small for her years
She sits at the very edge
Of the miles-high ledge
About her adventure, no one below knows
The sun climbs higher
Into a sky devoid of ozone
Skeletal bushes around her begin to simmer with fire
She stares at the beauty
Of the great golden orb
It’s the last things she’ll ever see
As her life the heat begins to absorb
Her parents and elders always said
The heat of the sun would burn you dead
There is no longer an atmosphere
To keep its harmful rays from coming near
But her science teacher thought
That anyone who caught
A glimpse of the great sun
Anyone who saw the beauty- would be a lucky one
Her skin breaks out in heavy sweat
As she gazes at the celestial being of bedtime lore
And as she stands there she does not regret
Her curiosity that burned her into no more
The great flaming sphere
Continues up into the sky
Shining on a surface world clear
Of any life or reasons why
Earth’s destruction couldn’t be stopped in time.
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