alas babylon
by Kaitlyn Lee
audio: read by the author
With the Soviet Union and United States at war,
Nuclear bombs are dropped, crashing on the floor.
Alas Babylon, a signal of danger is sent,
A brother prepares for the worst, doesn’t waste a cent.
Buys what he can, and stores it away,
He knows he will need it on the dreaded day.
Then a community of people hide and wait,
As the radiation zone determines their fate.
Area deemed unsafe, they’re cut off from the rest,
Now having to survive alone, doing their best.
Eventually learning to come together and survive,
Diverse group of people, now connected, will thrive.
Finally by the time it was safe for others to return,
The victory of the war, America would earn.
But with all the casualties of wars even within,
It makes you wonder are there really those who win?
Skeleton, a drawing by Jenna Kim (grade 10) →
Kaitlyn Lee (grade 9)
bio
My name is Kaitlyn Lee, and I am a freshman. I like to do math competition so you’ll see me practicing for that most of the time. Other than that though, I like playing volleyball, and if I have any free time, I love to read.
what is your mains source of inspiration?
Due to this piece being a shrinklit, it was inspired by the book Alas Babylon by Pat Frank. This is a novel written in 1959 during the cold war, where at that time, fear of nuclear war between the United States and Russia was large. It described a community in Florida, facing consequences of a nuclear attack and having to learn how to survive.
what is your ideal writing environment?
I really like to write alone, on my desk since that’s where I think best. That way I can say random lines out loud to test if they sound good, and from there I finish drafts and share them with friends or family. They’ll tell me what they like and dislike and then I’ll continue to edit the drafts until I have a final copy.
what message do you hope to convey to the reader through your piece?
I really liked the message in the book that there is no winner in a war and I hoped to convey that message through this piece. In a war, there are always losses on both sides, and it was very important to convey the message that war does not have a winner. Both sides lose as people fight and die, and friends and family lose the people they love.