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...SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: AMI GREEN by EDGAR LEE MASTERS WINTER NIGHT SONG by SARA TEASDALE THE SNUG LITTLE ISLAND by THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN THE TUFT OF KELP by HERMAN MELVILLE THE BALLAD OF BITTER FRUIT by THEODORE FAULLAIN DE BANVILLE THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 26. ASKING FOR HER HEART. CHRISTMAS by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |