I travel this barren road day after day
My shoes long gone.
I wrap my feet in plastic bags
To protect them from the cold.
The nights go on forever
Stretching into day
I have not seen the sun in years
Only an ashen sky over an ashen world
Everything is dead now
Everything but me
And even that is questionable.
This world, once so beautiful
Is now reduced to ash.
Ash in the sky
Ash in the water
It’s everywhere.
Consuming the planet,
Killing everything in its path.
I travel this road in a hopeless effort
To find somewhere I can breathe.
I travel this barren road day after day
To find refuge from the cold.
It’s so cold here,
And growing colder.
If I don’t continue my path southward
I won’t survive.
Yet it is getting so hard
To keep going.
It’s so cold here,
In this frozen, empty world.
I travel this road because it is harder
To freeze to death if you keep moving.
I travel this barren road day after day
To find any trace of civilization.
I’ve been on my own since my wife died.
How long ago was that?
I have no way of knowing.
I haven’t kept a calendar
Since the world ended.
I’m so alone
And so hungry
And cold.
I travel this road to find someone
Who can tell me I’m not a ghost.
As I travel this barren road day after day
The world grows increasingly dull.
My chances of survival are slim.
How can you survive in a dead world?
You can’t, yet I keep trying.
I’m out of food now,
And chew on ash infused snow
As I continue my journey.
I travel this road because
There’s nowhere else to go.
The world is dead,
And I guess I have to die with it.
It’s only a matter of when.
I travel this road in a last attempt
To run away from death.
But there is nowhere to run to
Because death is all that’s left
Of this desolate Earth
I used to call home.
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139,357 Literary Works • 672,540 Reviews
The Road is such a good read! This is really accurate in presenting McCarthy's post-apocalyptic world and your imagery and wording work really well together. The repetition and anaphora help set a tone of endless suffering and fatigue. It's interesting to note how you offer three sort of examples of killing agents, snow/cold, ash, and hunger. Great work, beautiful to read!
Hey! Sarah12 here to review. First off, this was a beautifully written, heartfelt poem. It had a lot of emotion infused into it, which made it all the more enthralling to read. The flow was good and it wasn't too fast-paced for the subject. It is wonderfully constructed.
One thing I just want to ask was, even though there was snow on the ground, and the world is desolate, so there would still be snow on the road, there was no description of the character struggling through the snow on the road as he becomes weaker? I just noticed the description depicts less of like a snowy scene and more of an icy, barren scene. That's my opinion though so you are welcome to ignore me
Overall, this was a wonderfully written poem, so good job, and keep writing!
Sarah12
Hey!
This was a beautiful poem. The description was really amazing.
Just thought I'd say that,
Alice ♥