ALWAYS AUTUMN

in the land of Always Autumn
the trees are dead
skeletal sticks
clawing through the wind
and howling like a billion ghosts
bleached white by poison rains

there is no green
not even weeds
the ground is cracked clay
and blowing sand
the sky is red
except when it's black

the wind smells like pain
angrily whipping sands
pelt hungry scavengers
who can only go out at night
because it's always hot
so hot you can't breathe

but there is no food
there was a lot for a while
when all the animals laid down and died
now there are only ever bones
people eat each other
mothers eat their young

we found a picture
in a faded, fluttering magazine
we could not read the many words
but we saw a happy family
with piles of food on their table
and the sky outside was blue

but that sky is gone
the last of us are dying
we made it through the wars
and the crumbling of the world
and the apocalyptic storms
and the eating of the rot

but now there's nothing left
we'll be gone soon too grandfather

they say a rich man was to blame
he polluted and poisoned
and burned the world down
for his own gain
they say you could have stopped him
but you had tables full of food

if you could only see the world now
you would have risen up
cut off the rich man's head
stopped the burning and saved us
if you could only see
what happens to little brother and me

i wish you would have