22nd

I look out my war torn living room window. I see an icicle hanging from the rear bumper of a car. I watch a water drop run down the side of the upside down cone. It reaches the tip and stops. I watch it stretch toward the snow until it falls. It hits the snow, carving a tiny dip. I look toward the sky, my eyes latching onto a snow flake. I watch it fall. It slowly drifts through the air. A gust of wind carries it toward the house across the street. The flake finally comes to rest upon the carrot nose of a snowman. Apparently, the world can not handle this. It sends one of its demons to the snowman to topple it. A little girl kicks her laughing brother, not allowing the boy to let his poisonous breath into the air. A woman comes out of the house, and takes the girl by her left arm.
The boy rolls onto his hands and knees and then gets up. He watches as his sister is pulled into the house. The world allows this boy to escape punishment from his parents. I watch as another snowflake comes to rest on the broken carrot lying beside a piece of coal. The boy looks at the new pile of snow, hangs his head. The boy scoops some of the pile into his arms, slouches on the ground.
This is one of the calmer days since the war started. I honestly thought it wouldn’t happen; even made fun of those who did. But, here we are. Korean soldiers with submachine guns running down the streets. Automatic gunfire echoing in the distance. Battles running all day every day around the world. A little boy yelling for his cat, “Marko”, there is no reply in the distance. A boy and girl in scorched clothing stumbling along broken sidewalks, pecking for food like wandering chickens. It isn’t quite how people imagined. They thought the whole world would end, humanity being wiped clean from the face of the earth. But it wasn’t like that: this is much worse. A mother collapsed in the road hunches over the child in her arms, wailing, pleading that they take her instead. Today is better though. Despite a crumbling society, people still find some happiness.
I wake up and laugh. I realize that it was all a dream. Today is December twenty second, two thousand and twelve. The world is a wonderful place.