at a Table in a Lofty Room, and while I sleep
a virus sweeps the earth, and when I wake I see
the population of the world is
me.
I take the observation suite in Emley Moor Most
To watch the skyline from the Appalachians to the Alps;
those signs of life, a thousand miles away perhaps,
are nothing more than fireflies nesting in the grass
across the fell.
I manage very well, become a master in the arts
of food and drink and heat and light,
but then at night, wit no one in the world
to cut my throat, I lock and latch
and bar and bolt the windows and the hatch.
by Simon Armitage
