The end of the world: it was given to me to see it. Came in the black dark, a bulge in the starless sky, A trembling at the heart of the night, a twitching of the webby flesh of the earth. And out of the bowels of the street one beastly, ungovernable cry. Came and I recognized it: the end of the world. And waited for the lightless plunge, the fury splitting the rock. And waited: a kissing of leaves: a whisper of man-killing ancestral night -- Then: a tinkle of music, laughter from the next block. Yet waited still: for the awful traditional fire, Hearing mute thunder, the long collapse of sky. It falls forever. But no one noticed. The end of the world provoked Out of the dark a single and melancholy sigh From my neighbor who sat on his porch drinking beer in the dark. No: I was not God's prophet. Armageddon was never And always: this night in a poor street where a careless irreverent laughter Postpones the end of the world: in which we live forever. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SINCERE FLATTERY OF R.B. by JAMES KENNETH STEPHEN PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 1. ALLAH by EDWIN ARNOLD EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 3. THE VOLUNTARY PRISONER by PHILIP AYRES SPRING THOUGHTS by FLORENCE E. BALDWIN WOODBINES IN OCTOBER by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES MERCY PLEADS by LUCRETIA STOUT BELLOWS |