A dank chill falls upon the windswept ruin
Derelict structures lie empty
Once soaring towers
sprawled on the ground
like ravaged shadows of a former glory

Craters spot the landscape, scars
of war, remnants of the nuclear rain
A sickly afterglow illumes
each site of foul penetration, where
irradiated blemishes remain

Empty offices and classrooms
Only whispers and shadows of
civilization lurk
Ashes and faded skeletons
the only lingering epitaph

A lone traveler wanders
His waning torchlight reflecting
off glossy windows
He searches for plunder, ripe for the taking
The ruins sedate, lifeless, a graveyard

Luminous flame crawls along the ruins
lighting detailed contours of each building
Once a vast monument,
a testament of achievement
now a wasteland, left for lesser beings to forage