A Prayer for the End of the World

War Poem #2

I have been thinking about the troubling state of the world, particularly about the fact that Europe has fallen into another unfathomable war that threatens to spill over into all the west. If you’d have asked me when I was sixteen, I would have scoffed at the idea that we’d find ourselves here, staring down a reincarnated Russian power straight out of an 80s action flick. And yet, here we are.

I know this is a heady, heavy thing to write about, but it’s what’s on my mind. After all, in this age, wars waged by madmen bring the possibility of annihilation, and not of countries, but of the entire human race. It’s that thought that has me pondering the nature of eternity.

I’ve turned to poetry more these days, and that’s what this offering is. Sure, it’s captioned as a prayer, but prayers and poems are kissing cousins, I think. In any event, enjoy my poem, “War Poem #2.”

War Poem #2

Creator of Atoms,

In the myth I know, you spoke atoms into existence, fused those atoms to create the dust, molded that dust into the shape called human. You breathed consciousness, curiosity, and creativity into that human then released us to inevitability. To love, to beauty, to the sacred—yes. But also to fists, then rocks, then spears, then arrows, then guns and so forth. All possibilities led us to Heroshima, then Nagasaki. And if not there, where? And now, to what?