black as the devil

Black as the devil...

charred, broiled husks
of what used to be life
pull back your skin
reveal the beauty of
your anatomic construction
illuminated in the hubris
of our atomic deconstruction
the fallout of the radiation
demonstrates humanity's
brilliance in the art of torture
like a magnifying lens in the
hands of a child, catching the
sun and throwing
prisms across stretches of land;
harnessing ultraviolet and throwing it back
onto the innocent ants marching
in strict, militant lines -
soldiers caught in crossfire.
in the wake
of whitewater rivers of blood
running over the clocktower,
marring the face and hiding the numbers
so that time stretches on forever
never moving, never going forward or back
stuck between a rock and a grave
temporal displacement
dysfunction
dysphoria
the middle children of minutemen
looking up and shouting "save us"
only to hear "no" whispered in return
we who need a saviour
we who will be disintegrated
by miscalculated calculations of
calculating men
we who have died
we who will die
we who die now
we who are only shadows,
ghosts lingering on whispers of wind
and bits of black graffiti that are harder to see
with age, but never fade
we who remain unseen and unheard,
we who are nothing but Hiroshima lovers,
holding tight to each other in door frames
and back alley walls
we who are the guardians of street corners
we who watch as history repeats itself
and the world crumbles
we who watch the watchmen.