Worlds Of War 10 |
Journalist:
There were a dozen dead bodies on Epson Road.
Their outlines softened by the black dust,
All was still, houses locked and empty, shops closed.
Looters had helped themselves to wine and food.
Outside a jewellers, some gold chains and a watches
were scattered on the pavement.
I stopped, staring towards the sound.
It seemed as if that mighty desert of houses had found a voice
for his fear and solitude….
The desolating cry worked upon my mind.
The wailing took possession of me.
Why was I wandering alone in this city of the dead?
Why was I alive?
When London was lying in state in it’s black shroud,
I felt intolerably lonely, drifting from street to street.
Dawn inexorably towards that cry….
I saw, over the trees on Primrose Hill, the fighting machine
from which the howling came.
I crossed Regents Canal,
and there stood a second machine,
upright but as still as the first.
Abruptly the sound ceased.
Suddenly, the desolation and the solitude became unendurable.
While that voice sounded, London had still seemed alive.
Now suddenly, there was a change, the passing of something…
All that remained was this gaunt silence.
I looked up and there was a third machine.
It was erect and motionless, like the others…
An insane resolve possessed me
I would give my life to the Martians, here and now!
I marched recklessly towards the Titan
and saw that a multitude of black birds
was circling and clustering about the hood…
I began running along the road.
I felt no fear, only a wild, trembling exaltation.
As I ran up the hill, towards the motionless monster,
I saw red shreds hung out of the hood.
Which the hungry birds now pecked and tore…
I scrambled up to the crest of Primrose Hill,
the Martian's camp was now below me.
In their overturned machines where the Martians,
DEAD...slain [after all man's devices had failed]
by the humblest things upon the Earth,
Bacteria!
Minute, invisible bacteria !!
Directly after the invaders arrived, drank and fed,
our microscopic allies attacked them.
From that moment they where doomed…
The torment was ended.
The people scattered over the country,
desperate, leaderless, starved...
The thousands who had fled by sea
-including the one most dear to me -
all would return.
The pulls of life growing stronger and stronger,
would beat again.
As life returns to normal,
the question of another attack from mars causes universal concern.
Is our planet safe, or is this time of peace merely a reprieve?
It may be that, across the immensity of space,
they have learned their lessons and even now await their opportunity,
Perhaps the future belongs not to us
But to the MARTIANS….
looters = plundrare
solitude = enslighet
desolating = ödsligt
wailing = gnällande
shroud = slöja
inexorably = obevekligt
unendurable = outhärdligt
gaunt = utmärglad
resolve = beslut
clustering = klumpa ihop
exaltation = hänförelse
reprieve = uppskov
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