Joseph Farley

The End of Time

The minister on television
says these are the end days.
That might be true,
but I’ve heard the same thing said
every day since I was born.
That might just be
because I was born in the end times,
but when you look back to the past
and read history
you find that the preachers
have always been saying
“We’re living in the end days.”

You can place bets if you want.
Check the Las Vegas odds
on survival from day to day,
month to month, year to year.
Maybe you’ll win big.
Maybe you won’t.

You’ll never collect
if you bet the bomb will go off
in the next half hour.
It’s probably better
to tune it all out.

Pretend the news isn’t there.
Who knows if it’s real anyway?
All of it.
Truth is easily hidden,
confused, lost
in the noise from talking heads.

Live your life now.
Love your life now.
Be nice to people,
even if you hate their guts, 
if only to see the surprise
on their faces.

Watch your garden grow a half inch
in the new March weather.
Who cares if you live long enough
to see flowers let alone fruit.

You’ve got it all made in the shade
until that last moment
when you don’t.