The Nuclear Age

For my mother and father,

for Kathy and Greg,

and for Ann

And the dead will be thrown out like dung,

and there will be no one to offer comfort.

For the earth will be left empty and its

cities will be torn down. None will be left

to till the ground and sow it. The trees

will bear fruit, but who will gather it?

The grapes will ripen, but who will tread them?

There will be vast desolation everywhere.

For one man will long to see another, or to

hear his voice. For ten will be left, out of

a city, and two, out of a field, who have

hidden in the thick woods or in holes in the rocks.

The Second Book of Esdras

16:23–29