Science Fiction - The Outback Camp Poem by Paul Warren

It started as a holiday in the Outback
Starlight nights and dusty red dirt tracks
Only the ABC radio to inform us of the news
But during the night there were flashes through
The sky with rumblings in the distance to hear
And the radio has gone dead or so it would appear

Then there was a fighter jet smoking across the cloud
That wobbled and crashed in its last gesture aloud
All day we worried what to do until sundown
And now the southern horizon is glowing blue unusually around
Then a set of headlights came towards us at speed
Stopping slowly at our camp as it ended its petrol feed

The driver was seated and didn't make a move to get out
And I saw then she was nearly dead covered in sores about
She only said two words before she died, 'The bomb'
Now we sit wondering what to do at night as the blue creeps along
We have supplies for another week before we have to leave
With each day it becomes harder to survive we believe.

© Paul Warren Poetry