Quake

the sky burns so brightly. a hideous, fiery red. i don't know how to respond except to pass you my cigarette, but the words come shortly.
"i guess so," i reply, as the second sun rises higher and higher in the atmosphere. it almost looks purple at the periphery of the horizon, but right there, in the middle, it's as red as fresh blood from an artery, and warbling with the angry heat of the atmosphere against solid rock.
you take the cig from your lips and let a billow of smoke out. the puff comes out quickly, and i can tell your heart must be thundering for you to not savor the nicotine in your lungs a little longer.
i know mine is. i've never been more scared in my life.
"i never thought i'd see the sky so bright at night," you reply, and hand me the remaining half of the fag.
it's growing exponentially. it'll all be over in a minute or two. the emergency sirens were blaring all day, but some adventurous teens knocked them out. there was no point in reminding people of their fate when there was no running, huh?
i take the cigarette back and put it into my lips. the taste of your lipstick is familiar, but in a way i don't like.
"is this what those nukes were gonna look like?" i ask, the almost-stub bobbing between my lips. i hope my lipstick tastes well to you. i'll likely never know.
"nah," you reply, "they'd have been even brighter for a moment, but not for long. not this."
i nod. the cigarette smoke tastes so good. i haven't smoked in fifteen fucking years before tonight, but there's no point in withholding vice anymore, huh?
"i love the way your lipstick tastes," i say, fishing for anything meaningful as the dull roar of the metal and silica starts to rumble through the searing air.
"i love yours," you reply, proving me wrong.
i blow out the smoke in my lungs and flick the cigarette into the sea that i imagine will be boiling in a few moments.
i lean over for a kiss, and you lean in.
your lips taste familiar in a way i love.
i start to feel a hideous burn against the cheek turned towards the the end of all things, and i imagine the yucatan crater in my mind's eye. the gulf of mexico is a natural body, but i always believed it was a giant meteor crater, growing up.
i part lips with you to ask how big a crater you think the continent will have, but before the words come out, -