Member-only story
When the World Ends, I Want to Be By Your Side
A Prose Poem
Stars blaze in their swan songs, and we’re lost in each other — anything, anything, to escape the truth of a world gone wrong.
Your smile is a bonfire in the dark, dark night. We try to tell ourselves we don’t care that there’s no guarantee of a tomorrow or an ever-after — but the cracks show when we least expect. It’s the way your eyes glaze over a little bit when you see a mother leading along a little girl. It’s the way my throat closes when I wonder if there will be food left in the cupboards a week from now.
But one thing I know is true, love: I would rather see the end of the world with you than live a lifetime without you.
The moon hides behind floods of smog and dust, and we’re taking our time, slow-dancing in a little cabin that’s our last hideaway.
We look at each other instead of looking anywhere around us — all the better to pretend we’re living in safer times where a future gleamed on the horizon. I tell you my secrets one by one, the things that would otherwise die with me, and you listen as if I’m spinning tales of grand adventures from worlds far away. You speak your truths, every single one, while I thrum notes on a battered old guitar.
