The Omega Man

The empty streets run round me like a curse

I pinch my nose and hopscotch through the dead

to find a wall graffitied with some verse,

a still-wet message scratched in cherry red

which fades to brown as it begins to dry.

“I love you but I hate love and that’s why

I hate you and I hope you fucking die”.

Above the words a scribbled evil eye

stares down at me as I begin to smile

the broadest grin this empty world has known.

Despite the flood of vitriol and bile

the message tells me I am not alone.

I dance off down the hollow, blood-soaked street,

day-dreaming of the poet I could meet.