Something wicked this way comes

I’m typing this from my office. Outside, the city is covered in ash. Anything more than five minutes in the open and your eyes sting and your body coughs, rejecting the lungful of ash and smoke it just inhaled. Seeing beyong 300 metres is futile.

The international press – BBC, AFP – report that the Malaysian government has declared a state of emergency. In reality, only two areas on the west coast have been included. The government were quick to dispute the foreign news reports. But it doesn’t matter – the winds will turn the errors into fact soon enough. Anyone with a window can see this.

I’m thinking about the Time magazine article on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing I read a few days ago.

I’m thinking of Krakatoa as the volcano rained hot ash and death onto fleeing citizens.

And more than once, I push back from my desk to check the horizon.
Wising.
Hoping.
That out of the thick grey smog, machines on metal legs will arrive to claim our planet as their own.