(One of the dream sequences from Akira Kurosawa’s “Dreams”)

One lone soul...

Stumbling through the smoke and desolation,
Survivor of mankind’s nuclear madness
And its ultimate demise.

The scorched earth,
Bare of animal carcass or edible vegetation.
He alone remains alone,
The last of men to be alive.

To see this
Vast atomic wasteland,
Barren save the strange mutations
Weeds and thistles of grotesque shapes and sizes.

It’s a
Fruitless search for food and necessary hydration.
Despair sets in and he thinks to himself,
Death would be a welcomed sight.

Meanwhile,
The wind cries out in abject consternation,
“Curse the demons who would drive men mad
For they have gone too far this time!”

Now hear,
The demons and their loud and woeful weeping,
Forced to feast on each other’s flesh
With but one soul left to eat tonight.

One lone soul…



Michael S. True
8/14/14