Dawn of society: happened once, then
Repeated.

Bombs,
Limbs,
Obscurity,
Oh, nuclear
Destruction! Gone are
Marin, San Francisco, Berkeley…
One by one, the people along this
Newly
Emptied coast
Yoke together to survive.

Of course, they are all
Radioactive.

Haplessly, they
Organize themselves.
Watching out for outsiders.

Wives, TV salesmen, children, physicists, teachers, dogs, murderers,
Even mutants.

God is not in the picture.
Or government.
That’s what happens after the apocalypse.

Alone, they might not have
Lived. But the
Obituary of humanity had one footnote:
Never underestimate the power of a dedicated
Group of Californians.

Actually, this is not such a bleak
Future. “I would have enjoyed being
There,” wrote the Author. They have
Each other, and a kind of
Real purpose.

This is ultimately a
Hopeful novel. The
End of the World is the

Birth of something totally new.
Only Philip K. Dick could imagine such a
Morose
Beginning.

Supplemental Materials:

Space Canon review of Martian Time-Slip (a sonnet)
Space Canon review of The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Space Canon review of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Space Canon review of Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
Amazon link: Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb