Post Apocalypse in Polo Park*

The end of the world
comes with a grumble
and small fires
licking at the trees;

but the people die
at the hands of one another.
The cold comes from
failure of mercy,
not the winter.

That's why the bus trip home
is magnified. Those icey
lights which subtract the color
and the deep Winter panic
of the Winnipeg cold.

I'm a deeply lonely man
so I just understand.
I want the voice
of a friend in the night.

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*response to the movie, "The Road"