The ExodusA Poem by David Lewis PagetI
think it began with the airline strike, No
planes, not in, nor out, The
pilots didn’t know who to blame, ‘Not
us,’ they said, ‘old Scout!’ ‘It
must be a Union thing,’ they said, But
then the trains had stopped, And
the truckies set their trucks in a ring That
the diesel tax be dropped. A
city of half a million Where
everyone stayed at home, Petrol
ran out at the bowsers, so There
was nowhere left to roam, ‘It
could only happen in Westernport, This
City of the Damned,’ The
people moaned, and the airwaves groaned, And
the Internet was jammed. People
were phoning the government But
they weren’t returning calls, The
Mayor had gone on a golfing trip, They
said, to Cedar Falls, The
‘News’ had run out of newsprint By
the end of the second week, So
the paper stands were empty, and The
Internet was weak. The
ISP’s said sorry, but Our
Networks are closing down, There’s
been some trouble with hackers From
some place in another town, The
radio went on the blink And
the TV screens were snow, The
people gathered on pavements Wandering
round, no place to go! The
blackout lasted another week, Then
the city’s power failed, The
engineers had scratched their heads, ‘We
have to get this nailed!’ But
then the water had stopped its flow Through
half a million pipes, And
the fear in the city began to grow As
thieves took over the night. Before
the strike, the news had been That
the Yanks were back in space, Right
back up there with the Russkies With
the Chinese, saving face, They’d
each gone on an exploring binge, The
Yanks had gone to Mars, While
the Russkies tackled Saturn, and The
Chinese, out to the stars. We’d
heard no more, the airwaves dead With
just the noise from space, Crackling
through transistors as More
women carried Mace, When
Sunday morn, on the fourth weekend, They
got a genny fired, Pedalling
on an ancient bike, Tooks
turns, until they tired, There
was just enough for a laptop, though Its
batteries had been flat, They
brought a flickering picture up To
see where they were at, They
hooked it up to a satellite And
they called up Google Earth, And
ranged the view wherever they could, But
all they found was dearth. The
land lay waste on continents That
had housed a billion souls, The
cities and towns were quiet, as if The
people had turned to trolls, America
was a vacant place While
Europe lay serene, And
even the seas had ceased to move, Not
a breaker to be seen! We
live in the city of Westernport The
City of the Damned, There
isn’t a thing alive out there, No
man to till the land, And
people are starving in the streets, I
think we can’t go on… ‘But
what of the rest of the human race?’ ‘They
disappeared! They’re gone!’ David
Lewis Paget © 2012 David Lewis PagetFeatured Review
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