(NB.. Doomed.. Yes, these next two pieces follow straight on)

Part VIII

Andy looked at Michelle

Solemn like for a few seconds

Before whispering

‘Doomed?’

heightening his total lack

of understanding

dying into a frozen stillness

drilling past their nerves

‘Doomed?’ He repeated

dead fingered

into forced geometry

‘I don’t understand’

‘It’s the beginning

of the end of the world’

Ghana answered

Without emotion. 

Part VIII (B)

Ghana looked at Andy

For a few seconds

Bending her finger

Into calligraphy figures

Dancing in the shadows

In silence

Before he eventually spoke,

‘What do you mean

the  end of the world?’

He asked somewhat shocked

Chasing his stunned breath

Through the silence

‘and who are you?’

‘You may call me, Ghana’

she looked at him surprised

‘I was there at its birth’

before concluding

‘and I will be here

after your world has died’

faciliting a panic

that ran through both of them

for different reasons.