Waiting for the New Era

“The end is where we start from.” — T. S. Eliot

If I Could See the End Coming

I wouldn’t expect a sudden white light
or a familiar crowd on the horizon
waving me forward—just trees hiking
down the mountainside, winter creek
softening at the edges, filling with snowmelt,
tumbling toward me. My husband,
a river-runner, would be holding a trout
he carved from redwood burl, curved grain
giving momentum to fins, his voice
only in my head. “If you’re swept away,
point your feet downstream.”

Beyond me, there’d be leaping,
the sporadic glimpse of deer, squirrels
threading understory. I’d nod
to a single black bear up on two legs,
the last wild man, savoring the air
above his face. I’d watch the low moon
step down from a locust branch, pause
at another, and slip away. All would be,
or seem, a slow process, like falling
in and out of love, again and again,
with the same person for years.

Note: In 2012, there were many who thought the world would come to an end on December 21, 2021. The focus was on the Mayan calendar, which was thought to be 'ending' on that date. However, that 'ending' was simply the ending of the last of 13 'long count' cycles in the traditional way the Mayan culture tracked time over vast periods. The world didn't end—a the set of cycles began anew.