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James Thurber: The Last Flower
The Last Flower in the World

During World Peace XII
(As people certainly know),
Our collapsed civilization
has been cruelly reshaped.

The whole world was in ruins,
No more trees, no more bushes.
All the gardens were torn down,
All the works of art, destroyed.

Men and women, in beaver skins,
Had become viler than beasts;
Even dogs had lost their hopes
And, though used to obedience,
Had abandoned their masters.

Packs of wicked wolves went
To pay visits to poor homesteads
Where destitute people lived.
No more music, no more books,

No more pictures, no more joys,
No pleasures, no desires,
Only endless desolation,
Lives spent in doing nothing...

The powers of World War XII
Were still there, among the people;
They didn't even say why the heck
That cursed war had broken out.

Boys and girls no longer dreamed
Glancing at each other's eyes,
But instead they stood there staring:
Love had passed from the earth.

Once, one fine evening in spring,
A girl strolling through the fields
Found, while walking, a tiny flower:
The last flower in the world.

She ran home to tell her folks
That the flower was moribund;
A boy out there in the pasture
Was amazed at this story.

So the boy and the girl together
Saved the last flower from death.
Then, a bee and a hummingbird
Came to greet it on a visit.

Soon one flower became two,
And two flowers became four,
And then five, six, seven, eight...
And then many, many more.

Every tree and every grove
Began then to leaf out,
The girl with a touch of make-up
Was a wonder of the world,
And the boy fell deeply in love,
Love was on earth again.

Children started jumping, laughing,
Plump, straight, with a pretty look.
The dogs returned to their farms,
But this is another story.

The resourceful young man
Started building a stone house,
Buildings stood again in the world,
Songs of life were heard again.

And then there came fiddlers
And magicians, and conjurers,
And tailors, and shoemakers,
And poets, and artists,
Sculptors, inventors,
And, of course, soldiers!

And then again colonels,
Captains, majors, lieutenants,
Marshals, brigadiers, generals
And saviors of humanity!

Down in valleys, up in highlands
People spread all over the world,
Until the highlanders began
To attack the dalesmen.

Well, the highlanders longed so strongly
For living in much lower places,
The saviors had God on their side
And drove the people crazy again.

Short time passed; very soon
A new world war broke out.
Everything was destroyed,
Nothing survived that doom.
Except one boy,
Except one girl,
Except one flower.
World War XII, as everybody knows,
Brought about the collapse of civilization
Towns, cities, and villages disappeared from the earth
All the groves and forests were destroyed
And all the gardens
And all the works of art
Men, women, and children became lower than the lower animals
Discouraged and disillusioned, dogs deserted their
fallen masters
Emboldened by the pitiful condition of the former lords
of the earth, rabbits descended upon them
Books, paintings, and music disappeared from the earth,
and human beings just sat around, doing nothing
Years and years went by
Even the few generals who were left forgot what the
last war had decided
Boys and girls grew up to stare at each other blankly,
for love had passed from the earth
One day a young girl who had never seen a flower
chanced to come upon the last one in the world
She told the other human beings that the last flower
was dying
The only one who paid any attention to her was a young
man she found wandering about
Together the young man and the girl nurtured the flower
and it began to live again
One day a bee visited the flower, and a hummingbird,
Before long there were two flowers, and then four, and then
a great many
Groves and forests flourished again
The young girl began to take an interest in how she
looked
The young man discovered that touching the girl was
pleasurable
Love was reborn into the world
Their children grew up strong and healthy and learned
to laugh and run
Dogs came out of their exile
The young man discovered, by putting one stone upon
another, how to build a shelter
Pretty soon everybody was building shelters
Towns, cities, and villages sprang up
Song came back ino the world
And troubadours and jugglers
And tailors and cobblers
And painters and poets
And sculptors and wheelwrights
And soldiers
And lieutenants and captains
And generals and major generals
And liberators
Some people went one place to live, and some another,
Before long, those who went to live in the valleys
wished they had gone to live in the hills
And those who went to live in the hills wished they had
gone to live in the valleys
The liberators, under the guidance of God, set fire
to the discontent
So presently the world was at war again
This time the destruction was so complete...
That nothing at all was left in the world
Except one man
And one woman
And one flower


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