Gloria

Took half your face and both your eyes.

It left you nothing but paralyzed.

And mushroom clouds, they left behind

our cities crumbling,

but I don't mind.

The ether tastes like nausea.

A permanent distraction

from the waking world outside.

Rain down.

"Gloria? Gloria? What's wrong?"

Like skeletons on ecstasy,

an epileptic dance party.

So shut your mouth and don't you scream.

Just hold my hand girl, and dance with me

to the sound of severed hands clapping

at our untimely funeral.

Bombs wrap children 'round swing sets.

And man's new nuclear paintbrush

redrew you on earth's canvas;

a skull where your face should be.

In the sound of falling rain,

in the flames, and the fallout,

I hear the echoes of an empire

calling out your name.

A ghostly sonnet,

a saw-toothed serenade,

and through the smoke I hear 'em singing,

I hear 'em singing,

"Gloria."