What would it be like on the last day of the world? I have not spent a lot of time considering the Apocalypse, but thanks to a very provocative workshop led by Jennifer Hancock, professor of English at CMU, I had the chance to consider it.
We read some fantastic end of the world poems, including Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice,” and then one of the prompts she offered us was to consider what it might look like, that last day of the world.
Where would you be? Who would you be with? What would it look like? Write your own imagining. Here is mine.
This Is Not a Test
The stars will not appear tonight. The plums will not release their pink plum scent when their thick dark skin is broken. The grass will need not be mowed tonight, nor the lamb’s quarters pulled from the garden. The birds will not require shushing tonight as the baby needs not be cradled to sleep. And I shall not kiss your lips tonight, nor straighten your rumpled collar. And the paint on the wall will not need repainting. The car need not be waxed. No one will be here to mourn or to cheer, or to say that it happened at all.