the night is long and it is confusing. we have come to the rest stop at the end of the world. to learn hard lessons, god says. but i’ve been here before, and god nods. tears glitter their cheeks. you were too sapling to notice, god says. the dimness, how it falls. the bokeh, how it seeps from the trees. i tell god we need to go back to get my glasses, but god says no. you must come prepared. listen, god says, the end of the world is lonely. the rest stops lay abandoned. the colors go unnamed. the tornado sirens nightly. it is the whine of a hungry dog, nose to the blacktop, panicked. it knows about the end. the scent in its mouth is the memory of your taste. you must not come, this time, astounded. myopic. eclipsed. pre-blissed, the mythos of ghosts like whispering insects ******* the honey from your corpse. and i am… astounded. i am blind. i am pre-blissed. i fall like the dimness. i bokeh like the trees. god pulls an insect from my ear and crushes it. god gives me my glasses and pulls me to my feet. says, watch closely, sapling. the end is so near. you are so lonely. and the dog- i fear it has noticed us.