Before the A-Bomb, plastic bags, and the miserable hole in the ozone
Armageddon was born uncertain millions of years ago
in an orgasmic detonation only 3 millimeters large
The resulting fallout would spread farther than light has travelled
Tiny fragments of debris drifted for eons, copulating one after the other
in a orgy of mammoth proportions, congealing seconds later into a design
so chaotically intricate, no sculptor could hope to duplicate it with chisel and marble.
When the first Tyrannosaurus was speared in the belly by a wounded Triceratops
Karma, masquerading as gravity, would snag this sphere of ice and hurtle it at
dizzying velocities through the cosmos
The first gunslinger's brains splattered against a cactus in New Mexico
occurred in concert with the ice as it slingshot around a spinning plug of lead
seven times the size of Australia
Momentum then increased as it cleared the final metallic peak, breaking off
tiny crystals behind it no bigger than kitten tears
The astronomer who would give it her name
was resting in the earth when a stray iron rock
slammed into its side as it closed on Mars
The day NASA failed, the riots began in earnest
Seven families found comfort in the embrace of carbon monoxide
Fifty-one were trampled to death in Berlin
Two-hundred seven skydived to their death,
their planes plummeting empty into mountainsides
Countless others were ripped to scrap by
machine guns as they stormed their nations' capitals
One day before the finale
a boy reads King for the last time and weeps
A forty-year old woman's remote control batteries go dead
and she goes to a Wal-Mart to find them all since looted.
A man who until yesterday was locked inside a padded room
finds the feel of stream water against his feet unsettling, and screams
Untold voices sing Amazing Grace in unison in churches throughout the world
A drunken officer in an underground silo launches his salvo, not caring where they will strike
Automated defenses respond throughout the world
Three hours before impact, a thirty-megaton warhead
disintigrates New York City in a fraction of a second
Ten minutes later, Moscow, London, and Instanbul follow
One hour before impact, the sky has blackened with ash and debris
the light of the ice can no longer be seen
Fifteen minutes before the monolithic ice hits the atmosphere
a satellite deemed a million-dollar failure smashes into the sphere
The resulting collison pushes Arroway's Comet a mere two degrees to the left
skimming the fragile air, harmlessly passing the dead world it will not pass again
for another three thousand years