When the World Will End

When the grass is brown and hot and dry

and when the vapor hazes in the air

and when the leaves crunch under feet

because the sun refuses to lay off the heat

When the veneration of childhood

becomes the exaltation of impulse

and when the discipline of impulse

becomes the repression of freedom

When lovers can call each other such

and not even offer each other much

because where love was once a sacrificial action

is now nothing more than a sexual satisfaction

When one would rather lie and save from getting hurt

than tell the truth for what it's wholly worth

and suspicion makes up in a relationship

for what a surplus of patience used to give

When the means by which one accomplishes

become the end for which one wryly wishes

and when the happiness that once was purely fought for

becomes the complacency that one had been bought for

The world will end

no doubt about it

but maybe that's a good thing.