T. S. Eliot  - The Hollow Men

IV.   The eyes are not here There are no eyes here In this valley of dying stars In this hollow valley This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms   In this last of meeting places We together And avoid speech Gathered on this beach of the tumid river   Sightless, unless The eyes reappear As the perpetual star Multifoliate rose Of death's twilight kingdom The hope only Of empty men.     [Word count: 496 ]

 

 

This is the way the world ends / not with a bang but a whimper.     Yixing sighed as he marked off another day on his calendar with a red marker. The ink was running out, and Earth has been dark for exactly six month.   21 of September, 2051.   “You’re going to need a new pen soon,” Kris called from behind his shoulder as he surveyed the neat, crossed off boxes with the light emanating from a candle several feet away.   If we’re even around long enough for the pen to run out.   Yixing decided not to voice that thought.   Just a year ago, the world had been swept up with yet another apocalypse theory; only this one had come true. The Blackout, it had been called, and on April 21st, night time had stayed and daylight never came.   It turned out that technology only gets a civilization so far. Crops stopped growing by month two, and from there, governments all around the world collapsed as riots and chaos took over.   “I’m going to need to go out and look for food again s