On October 23, 2077: the television stations were frozen with a familiar test pattern, radios blared with Civil Defense warnings and instructions, and telephone services were commandeered by the government for the war effort. In short, the likely and traditional means for private citizens to coordinate anything beyond an immediate, local level were unavailable. It was in these unlikely circumstances that the short poem came to life and spread across the nation like a memetic virus. Across towns and cities the poem began appearing in black spray paint along wide walls and billboards. Nobody quite knew who wrote it and nobody realized that this bit of apocalyptic art was all over the place.