They camped for the night on the porous edge of Real,
upstream as far as possible from Sad.
They watched the lights go out, watched space congeal.
‘Can it really do that?’ asked someone who had
taken science courses. They watched goblins steal
both Joy and Meaning, leaving only Bad
in their picnic hampers where they’d thought they’d kept
enough sustenance. They suffered, then they slept.
I wanted the last sentence to be ‘They suffered. No one slept’ denoting vigilance and resistance, but their eventually forgetting and giving up seemed sadly more likely.
Earth Tourist 
Oh, Alan, you have written what’s in my heart in a way I never could. Seriously, this put a lump in my throat. Even your add-on comment at the end resonates all too sadly within me. We can only hope that your initial intention rings more true than what seems more realistic. Well done, my friend.
Thank you, Elise. Thoughtful commentary. It’s sad that these times call the thoughts in this poem into mind.