Anna Cates

End of Days

The Eschatologist. The title of a new poem. One member of my writer’s group tells me I’ve misspelled “Armageddon.” Another asks what the title means.

I try to explain the second coming of Christ, that W. B. Yeats wrote a famous poem about it, that even Muslims have a version of how Jesus will return: A hulking war hero who’ll destroy multitudes. Some New Testament passages suggest the second coming is imminent, but they were written 2,000 years ago. 

Every major war, earthquake, hurricane, tornado, or tsunami seems to coincide with some doomsayer claiming it heralds world’s end. Yet one year rolls into the next. 

Feeling confounded, I wrap up my biblical exegesis with a diversion into science: The end of the world is scientific fact. Our sun will slowly age into a red giant. One day, life simply won’t be possible on Planet Earth.

singing to me
a bird I can't recognize
shadows in the glen

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Author’s Note: Haiku previously published in World Haiku 17 (2021), p. 16.

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About the Author

Anna Cates lives in Wilmington, Ohio with her two beautiful kitties, Freddie and Fifi. She teaches college writing and literature and graduate education as an online instructor. She is author of the following collections: The Meaning of Life and The Frog King (Cyberwit Press), The Darkroom (Prolific Press), The Golem & the Nazi (Red Moon Press), The Journey (Resource Publications), and Love in the Time of Covid (Wipf & Stock).