The End of the World by Dunya Mikhail
"The seashell that hasn't quite disclosed all..."
DUNYA MIKHAIL The End of the World For Lori, who says “everything is happening now” Everything is telling me it’s the end of the world: the astrologers, the deadly new viruses, the ozone layer, the ant cavorting with the grasshopper, the wars, and his message, cold and curt. But other things change my mind: the clouds that always know their way, the seashell that hasn’t quite disclosed all, the wishes tossed with coins in the fountain, and the flower, waiting to happen.
I love this poem. It's so pure.
Hello Shannan, I just finished reading this poem, and it left me with that quiet, lingering feeling you get when something small and true brushes against you. It holds this delicate balance between fear and hope, naming all the signs that make the world feel like it’s collapsing, yet refusing to stop there. I love how the poem shifts from the coldness of “deadly viruses” and “curt messages” to the gentleness of clouds that simply know their way. The seashell line is stunning — it feels like a reminder that the world still has secrets it hasn’t given up on. The wishes tossed into fountains bring back that soft, almost childlike belief that hope can still be made by hand. And the flower “waiting to happen” is such a tender, stubborn refusal to let despair have the last word. The poem doesn’t deny the darkness, but it doesn’t surrender to it either. It leaves you with the sense that even at the edge of endings, something is still quietly beginning.