“in case of rapture this car will be unmanned”
- bumper sticker from the 70’s
Instead of going to the family’s New Year’s Eve party
they laid in bed, under the covers watching fireworks
on TV as the Millennium arrived across the time zones.
He waited for confused computers to cause malfunctions,
havoc, mass destruction- maybe the end of the world.
Number two was about to appear in the thousands place,
catchy slogans, media hype, a wave of fear, but in the end,
there was no end. Just a basement filled with generators,
flashlights, firearms, fuel, rolls of duct tape, cases of water,
cans of tuna, and boxes of granola bars bought from Costco.
This time, roadside billboards quoting scripture went up,
messages swirled across the internet, people at work felt
a need to talk about it, radio shows called in the experts.
Somehow, he began to consider, maybe the end is near?
Last night, he was all alone, but took himself out to dinner.
Feeling like a death row inmate from the movies, he ordered
a Philly cheese steak with fried onions that filled his plate and
he had no worries of cholesterol levels or high blood pressure.
As he shook on the salt, he admired the difference in the flavor.
He sipped his Diet Coke and said a prayer for all he’d been given.
