Midnight

It’s five minutes ‘till midnight

And the clock strikes off seconds as it strikes off minutes

As it prepares to chime the strike of the witching hour that will strike us from existence

Hearts beat a little slower just so as to be prepared

Lungs take in less oxygen

Ensconced in beautiful malice

And at full tilt, critical mass whirrs on

It’s five minutes ‘till midnight

And the sky is black

We’ve forgotten all manner of common decency

Only fragmented slivers of our dejected humanity, decrepit weakness,

And affinity for sin remain

The clock chimes on

It is now four minutes to midnight,

Among the things we now see

The walking dead rise again and walk somberly away

As the dead and forgotten lie back and roil in their long lost graves

It’s a zoo out there people,

Thanks to the atomic mandate of mutually assured apocalypse

Assuredly our addiction to oil

And costly dependence on a caustic existence of over consumption and greed

The end stands less than four minutes away

But steady progress trumps morality

And we draw ever closer

It’s three minutes ‘till midnight

And you want to know whether in your life you moved too slow

With the end so near, it’s now you decide to concern yourself with the fate of your soul

My apologies,

But you’re going to hell

It’s two minutes to midnight

And god already knows

What it was in your life that made you so ugly and cold

Don’t kid yourself with oblivion and the rapture so near at hand

God already did, and always would have known your failings as a man

You couldn’t bribe the church to save your being

My apologies,

But that’s truth,

And midnight doesn’t concern itself with your salvation

How sad.

It’s now one minute ‘till midnight

And it’s always darkest just before it goes pitch black

Do tell me,

Are you ready or are you not?

Rickety tickety tock

So far as I know apparently it’s tag

And we’re it

Look yourself in the eyes,

And holding the doomsday clock

Tell yourself that this is it

Thirty seconds ‘till midnight, people

What’s been set in motion

Cannot stop and will not stop

For all we know is falling

How is it that man conceivably could’ve stop his ending

But instead chose the midnight path?

Pour your heart and soul out

In a futile struggle to stop this doom, impending

It’s just about midnight

And conceivably all we shall know is dying

They call this midnight;

In the unseemly twilight you can see the black moon rising

Look, look, look at all the darkness

Or listen,

You can hear it writhing

© 2008 Eugene Aarons-Cooke