Two by Two
 

There had been signs in the sky and elsewhere

For weeks. Too many supermoons, unpredictable

Tides, birds flying north, salmon beaching, serious

Fluctuations in the earth’s magnetic field all, so

Folk were told, nothing more than the earth’s iron

Core preparing to flip as it apparently has done in

The past. A story that went down well for a time

But lost all credibility when the equator suddenly

Became the new north pole

An amateur astronomer equipped with little more

Than a monocular spotted it first an object in the

Night sky of considerable proportion and heading

Directly for earth. An asteroid perhaps was his first

Thought but no this thing whatever it was had lights

Soon it was within clear sight of earth and in the

Night sky an object of extraordinary portent. The

Faithful fell to their knees whilst a secular world

Concerned itself more with the possibility that the

Occupants of this huge craft might be hostile

Parking close to the moon it brought a new beauty

To the night sky and to the earth below. The air

Forces of the world looked up in disbelief, man may

Well have walked on the moon but right now a lunar

Flyby was totally out of the question. Independence

Day was a great movie but that’s all it was, this was

Real and more than a little threatening

A new neighbour had arrived settling in next to an

Old one. What did it mean and what did it want?

A first week past and then a second and in that time

A new story broke involving the disappearance of

Children and animals. Frantic parents demanded

Answers from authorities who had none and knew

No more than they. In a little over two weeks the

Missing number of children in the UK alone ran

Into millions

So occupied were the press and TV with the plight

of the children that it was some hours before anyone

Noticed that the moon’s bright new companion had

Disappeared too. Powerful telescopes trained on the

Night sky caught or so it was claimed a final glimpse

Of the craft as it left the universe

It took Sandra and Sam’s mum and dad several

Hours before they plucked up the courage to phone

The police. They had news of their two children

News that they knew would be met with incredulity

But there it was a note on Twitter that read: When

We left church today Noah and his wife were there

To meet us. They said there was something wrong

With the earth and that we should go with them. We

Didn't like to at first but they were so kind and it's like

Heaven up here lots of children and animals of every

Kind, Chris and Pauline are here too. Noah said he

Couldn't take everyone, but that you and daddy

Would understand. Noah told us the Ark wasn't a

Boat it was a ship

The very notion of children hijacked overnight and

From the sky of all places temporarily took centre

Stage, over-shadowing any warning by some tyrant

Calling himself Noah that a perfectly fine earth was in

Jeopardy. Twenty four hours passed peacefully before

A violent shuddering underfoot gave fearful resonance

To Noah’s words innocently repeated by a little girl

Telling of a pressure instability at the earth’s core that

Could neither be corrected nor could it be relieved

Earth, home to life for millions of years had taken a

Battering from which it could not recover. Too much

Had been asked of her, too much had been taken

From her. Imbalance was everywhere, stripped of

Her trees earth’s natural air conditioning had gone

And thus richly polluted air lingered at street level

For all to breath. Navigating the seas was to plough

Through mountainous waves of waste plastic. Every

Scrap of energy there ever was had been sucked

Squeezed, hammered, blasted and mined from

The bowels of the only home we have all to make

More horrors with which to further poison the earth

In a wicked cycle of wanton self-destruction

As the day of reckoning drew near aircraft fell from

The skies, satellites collided and worldwide telecoms

Collapsed. Scientists everywhere now knew the full

Measure of man’s folly. A raped earth, poisoned air

Filthy fish-dead oceans, signs that anyone politician

With a brain should have heeded, could have heeded

And put right with time to spare, but too late now for

The end was in sight

An end that began with cracks slowly wriggling

Their way along city streets, along country lanes

Across village greens, into back gardens, school

Playgrounds, church halls... An acrid unbreathable

Stench added to the polluted air as the doors of

Hell swung open heralding the flood of which

Noah spoke ‘floods of fire’ he called them, molten

Lava belching forth from the belly of a dying planet

A flood from which the earth would not recover. A

Searing gaseous all consuming flood of fire so totally

Complete it would cleanse the universe of mankind

Forever. There would be no dove telling of the

Receding of the waters, no dove telling of a world

Returning to normality, for the earth had finally had

Enough and this flood marked the end of everything

A world that couldn’t get enough energy got all the

Energy the earth had left in a death-dealing final

Scream of rebuke transforming a once thriving

Garden of Eden into a man-made lifeless lump of

Rock left aimlessly spinning around a dying sun

Waiting its turn to become yet another spatial

Spectacular in the night sky and in the few hours

That remained wise men waited and wondered

(no point putting pen to paper now) how long it

Might be before:

The End

As lava poured over the earth a scientist closed

A research paper knowing that it would never be

Read. His final calculations indicating that the

Earth or what was left of it would in time acquire

A series of rings as surface debris flew off into

Space, the greater to the three rings would be

Made up entirely of fragments of glass

© Joseph G Dawson
19/02/2018 – 04/03/2016