Because We Know the World is Ending
BY NICK READING
We treat everyone with unimaginable kindness –
hearts like a compass finding lives, hearing
shallow breaths in rubble, hungry kids
in the kitchen next door frightening neighbors
sharing dreams over the last can of soup
believing, finally, there is nothing else to do.
We wish it could last forever, the dead time
that brings enemies to dinner. Nothing lasts.
Looking back as if through a window
framing one last meal, distrust steals
the tea pot, parties eager to plan escapes
from a fate they planned for. Horizon
like a ruler, marks a few mornings
before clouds explode, looking like what
you’d imagine. We watch from the back yard.
We decide nothing matters more
than thanking each other for the company,
offering a couple down the street a ride home
as if we’d agreed to build this future
picking up pieces of the dead along the way.
Nick Reading is the author of The Party in Question, winner of the Burnside Review Chapbook Contest. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in many journals, including New Ohio Review, Mid-American Review, TriQuarterly, Cortland Review, Painted Bride Quarterly and others.
