By Babylon’s Waters

It seems we all are looking down

   The long road to Babylon these days,

In front of screens flickering.
   Grim images incessantly 

Anticipating the place where we will one day sit

   Heads in hands, humming wistful tunes

That Babylonians would wish for us sing

   In the aftermath of our doom.

Once we’ve crawled from out

   The rubble that must inevitability be

The consequence of civilization’s sins

   And humankind’s lust for zombie apocalypses

And sullen captivity and lots of living dead

   To mete out our punishment.

Down past the breath-taking end

   We know that we will one day sit

In the dust upon the stumps of burned out trees

   We once insisted we were protecting

And we will watch the thick brown waters flow by;

   Waters only God can make run clear again.

© by Tom King