The poetic city: “The End of the World 5/24/18”

Mar 23, 2020 • City Contexts, Creative Writing, Politics

Editor’s Note: Notice the date on this poem (5/24/2018). When Reece Burka wrote this piece, he was alerted that the end of the world is coming. It seems rather fitting now during these times where people are not exactly sure what’s around the corner besides Google searching for new numbers. We hope that pretty soon we’ll all be able to say, “We made it!” as well.

Reece Burka’s granddaughter who asked about the end of the world. (Photo provided by: Reece Burka)

The End of the World 5/24/18

My granddaughter read on the internet

that the world would end tomorrow.

She came to me in a panic for

grandfatherly comfort.

I tried my best to no avail…

When I promised her that it would not

end tomorrow, she wanted proof.

When I told her that people have been saying

the world would end since the beginning

of time, she said it only had to happen

once.

When I reminded her that she had imagined

terrible things in the past that did not come true,

she said that was in her head, but this was

on the internet

So, I gave up and told her that our problem

was not that the world might end tomorrow…

Our problem was that it might not..

That got a laugh and she finally got some sleep…

The next day when I saw her she smiled,

gave me a hug, and said , “We made it!”

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