On The Brink

On The Brink

On the brink of a nuclear holocaust

                Dangling

                With the promise

                                Of assured mutual destruction.

The apes are insane.

                Consumed with the madness of paranoia

                                Tinged with lust for power

                                                As Putin dishes out instruction.

He’d rather wipe out humanity

                Turn the planet into ash,

                                A glowing ember,

Than lose face.

With his hypersonic

                Ballistic missiles

                                Throwing the whole world

                                                Into yet another arms race.

Forget about poverty,

                Global warming and biodiversity

                                We’ll deal with them another day.

                                                This is about pride.

Who cares about the future?

                Who cares about the billions?

                                Who cares at all?

                                                Just cast all sense aside.

We dangle on the brink of oblivion,

                Waiting for Putin to bring it on.

Opher – 2.4.2022

I am old enough to have lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis when we hung on the edge of nuclear catastrophe. I remember going into school not knowing if I would live to see home again. Hiding under our desks was never likely to work, was it? All day we listened to the news on our portable trannies. The Russians ducked out at the very last minute. We lived.

I have visited the underground bunkers with all their strategic planning. Places where our masters would sit it out while we fried. They spent billions on them. There were bolt-holes under parliament, Buckinghan Palace and country hall – miles down. They were preparing for the holocaust. The holocaust was very real. Not that they wanted us to really know the extent. We were expendable.

For people like Putin the whole planet is expendable.