She finds him,
where the ground bleeds fire,
heat spilling like blood,
echoes of a swan song fading,
the last man, ash in hand, fear in throat.
She laughs, in cackles like breaking glass,
like glaciers snapping in the dark-  
come closer, closer, closer still-

She shows him the spells,
the ones burning holes in the sky,
how to boil oceans to bone,
choke forests on last breaths-
power was never magic, but choices cast,
and they learned to seize
smoke from oil, plastic from sea, life to ash

She trembles, teeth clattering like ice
under the breaking of spells past rot, polar molars
guiding his fingers
to the ****-
feel that? it’s the heartbeat slowing  
feel that? the last spell I have cast
feel that? but you, you can still do something

One last spell to learn-
It won’t come easy,
it won’t cast quick.

She teaches him to pull fire from air,
how to breathe it to life
in the ruins of cracks,
planting seeds of hope-
this was their doing, their undoing
but you, you can choose to be different,
to be the spark that doesn’t catch,
or- you can watch
like they did,
as the world burns
without you

He closes his eyes,
the last man on earth-
& casts.