“….evacuate immediately. Citizens...”

Tom switched off the radio. He wanted to scream. He wanted to break something.

Instead he went upstairs and kissed her.

Angela murmured sweetly, opening her eyes as if she knew. She held him tightly as he carried her.

Angela’s lips were as red as the poppies. Far off, a siren moaned. In the living field, in a dying world, in those last precious moments, the lovers sang a defiant harmony. That ancient song of sighs and screams eclipsed the distant wail of death and filled the final morning's air with the battle hymn of life itself.