Messenger

My wife left me

but I left her

the house.

Now I live

outside.

I have a hat. Perhaps you have seen it.

It sits in front of me on the corner of Delaware Ave and Ponce de Leon.

Any donation large or small is greatly appreciated.

A woman dropped a dollar in it today.

She looked at me. Her eyes were deep blue

and filled with tears. They streamed down her frozen face.

A desperate sadness. Wonderful. Open. Ready to receive.

“Yes,” I said. “Today is the end.”

No. Couldn’t be. She stared.

“Yep, the big finish. Tonight I will lay down my head and close my eyes and the darkness will come and fill me and everything and I will be done and you and the world with me,” I said

and smiled so big.

You mean sleep

she was thinking.

“No. Not sleep. The ending.”

How can this be? She wondered with an eyebrow.

“It is it. The everything. All the everything.”

She stared in silent affirmation.

Had she finally received my message? Did she understand the totality?

“Allergies,” she said,

wiping her eyes. She walked away.

No.

The gift given but not received.

Tonight the world will die.

Perhaps tomorrow

she will be ready to hear it.

In whatever form she manifests

I too will return to give her the news

of the end of it all.

The cycle ends.

It continues.