The Midnight Birds

[mr_blue_owl 10]

The strangest thing was the silence

As I’d stood there all alone

And the almost perfect stillness

Now the midnight birds had flown

 

The air was filled with acrid fumes

Flames were dancing on the ground

If not for my own heart beating

I would not have heard a sound

 

I’d seen the death of innocence

And the world’s eternal shame

Then I watched a child come walking

Through the wall of dancing flame

 

His clothes were hung in tatters

And his hair was snowy white

Tears of blood ran down his cheeks

And his eyes had lost their sight

 

He had sunk down to his knees

And turned his face up to the sky

Beneath the burning nuclear sun

He had whispered softly ‘Why?’

 

The strangest thing was the silence

Now the midnight birds had flown

And the almost perfect stillness

In this place I once called home