Hold Her Close

In the future, after the wind dies down, and the great drift begins, after the great flu, the great flood, and perhaps the great explosion; after vanity, celebrity, and the consequences of rigor mortis; after sociopaths, psychopaths, telepaths; after priests and guns and clerics; after God and genocide and the cycles of the damned; after cancer, AIDS, and hypochondria; after fashion. After truancy, delinquency and wisdom; after governments, crosses, stars and swastikas; after freedom; after desert storms and camouflaged bombs, after counter-intelligence; after maps; after  oxymorons, synonyms and hypocrisies; after youth, innocence, and naivety; after selfishness, guilt, shame; after mistakes, both in love and hate, after common nonsense; after bar brawls, shopping malls and peace-loving pregnancies; after tabloid media, make-up and breakdowns; after empires, saltires and nationalities; after game theory, chaos theory, and wretched reality; after hamburgers, heart disease, herbivores; after DNA and long summer evenings; after flowers drain colour in premature seasons; after digital heaven; shambolic institutions, sanctimony’s sting; after crusades, tirades, Band Aid, no aid; after BC, after AD, after phonymyms and isms; after Christmas, torture, and justice; after obesity and health; after paranoia, schizophrenia, asylums; whooping, winning, falling apart; after the paper chase; after crowns, scepters, bizarre kingdoms; after thought control; after serendipity, fate et al.; after lust; after architecture and human nature; after affluence and passports; after cats and dogs, after camping holidays, after nostalgia; after race and sexuality, after limbo, hell, and laughing; after addiction, after recovery, after semantics and histrionics; after self importance; after sex, afterbirth, after rejection and rape; after synergy; after work, after worry, after losing touch; after stress, after Christmas, after the ferris wheel; after clouds and darkness and demons; after hallucinations; after mountains, cliffs, bloodshot sunsets, success and failure, and daisy chains; after will; after secrets, after acceptance, after love and loss, after regret. After all; after the sun burns out, hold her close.