267 - First Eschaton

First Eschaton
By A. Roy Eckardt
(For P. D. James and The Children of Men)

On his hurried exodus to the Moon
The Warden of the Earth left behind
His small collection of rowboats
For use by the last humans.

The few Americans are gone from America.
They came down from Moorhead
(West Coast and East Coast having been blackened)
And boarded the rowboats at Corpus Christi.

The few British are gone from Britain.
They came down from King's Lynn
(Bypassing a toppled London)
And boarded the rowboats at Penzance.

The few Chinese are gone from China
They came down from Fushun
(Evading pestilential Shanghai)
And boarded the rowboats at Shantou.

The few French are gone from France.
They came down from Soissons
(Where they had huddled in terror)
And boarded the rowboats at Sète.

The few Japanese are gone from Japan.
They came down from Niigata

A. Roy Eckardt is a senior associate fellow in the Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the University of Oxford. His most recent books are On the Way To Death (1995) and No Longer Aliens, No Longer Strangers (1994).

268 - First Eschaton

(Having driven themselves from Sendai)
And boarded the rowboats at Matsusaka.

The few Russians are gone from Russia.
They came down from Vologda
(Twisting away from flamed Moscow)
And boarded the rowboats at Taganrog.

The last humans are far out upon the waters now.
Their location is 35º South, 130º West.
They circle and circle, fabricating a great whirlpool.
They go down to the Deep Sea, in rowboats.