With a Bang After All

by Dan Hawkins

I heard urgent voices over bombs down the hall
say, “There’ll be whimpering enough to go ‘round,
but it seems the world ends with a bang after all.”

“This despite all our efforts to stall
the vengeance of God and men of renown,”
said urgent voices over bombs down the hall.

Those hoping for respite resist the pall,
the dark that this day’s dusk’s dragging down,
but it seems the world ends with a bang after all.

Professional distracters, forever on call,
stand ready to make enough noise to drown
out urgent voices and bombs down the hall.

Line the remainders against the wall,
the ones who have listened and heard through the sound
and know the world ends with a bang after all.

Turn up your collars, and tighten your shawls,
cling fast to whatever hope that you’ve found.
Hear voices exploding their way down the hall,
screaming, “The world ends with a bang after all.”

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Dan Hawkins is a poet and librarian who grew up in North Carolina but has lived in South Carolina for the past seven years. Charleston is growing on him, though he still questions the wisdom of building a city on a swamp. His poems have appeared in Pictura Journal, Half and One, and the Yearbook of the Poetry Society of South Carolina.