Poems For the End of the World

The graffiti was placed by a group who wanted to cover up the fact that the walls of its city were crumbling down.
Without making it overt that they were a legitimate group, responsible for the maintenance of the infrastructure.
Soon enough, people who called themselves “artists”, believed it was a movement.
And that’s how the walls of this city became patched up with words of righteous rebellion and feminist sentiments.
Free of charge.

***

Cloud-seeding
Is a government-led
Tactical maneuver
The artificial clouds fill the entire space
The rain falls heavy
Into the publics’ eyes
They cannot look up
They cannot see past the clouds
For if they could
The army of drones
Hovering just above their heads
May disturb them
And a disturbed public
Is more likely to foster
Rebellious sentiments.

***

The deaf man can’t hear the sirens
So, when he wakes up in the morning
He takes his time getting dressed and having breakfast
When he walks outside
He is only a bit surprised that there is no one around
It is a Saturday morning after all
So people could be sleeping in
He walks to the park
The sirens wail
People watch him from their windows
Shocked at his defiance
As the end moves through the streets
Like a wave of forever-change
The deaf man sits on his park bench,
Watching the silent birds sing.
Is the world really ending,
If you can’t hear the sirens?

***

One euro for a flame
Otherwise it will be too dark
For God to see you
Roll a joint
Light a match
Smoke it on the windowsill
Experience twice the candle light

***

They don’t know what will happen.
Maybe the buildings will burn
Maybe the page will rip
Maybe the baby will cry
Maybe the lights will just go out
It doesn’t have to be so earth-shattering an ending.
In fact, the less infrastructural damage, the better.
Rather than the destruction of the world,
The destruction of the mind
Is much more manageable.
But none of them are looking in.

***

I’ll meet you in the garden
Forgetting the vastness of the garden
I arrive at the garden
I walk up the hill
Down the other side
Into the maze of the wood
Through evening tea tables in flowery patches
Past statues of men I don’t remember
Endless figures hidden in shadows
Just out of sight in the trees
Affogami nella vasca
I can’t find him
He can’t find me
Un giardino solitario

Artwork by Hope Gangloff