Last Day

Extremity brings things into sharper relief. 
But when Annie Dillard says spend it all, shoot it, 

play it, lose it, all, right away, every time, I don't 
think she's talking about maxxing out credit cards 

or going for broke at the slot machines because the world 
is ending tomorrow, or if not tomorrow, very soon after that. 

She's talking about the writing life, the life of creation 
and how even there, the economics of scarcity seems 

to prevail. In summer, we watched an apocalyptic film 
in which scientists warn everyone about a comet crashing 

into Earth; no one believes them, until of course it's too 
late. At that point, when the end happens, I too would like 

to sit at a table with the people I love instead of scrambling
for a seat I could probably not afford anyway, on the last 

spaceship leaving this planet. Someone will praise the wine, 
and we'll try to guess the secret ingredient that lifts 

the roast from merely good to amazing. We'll savor each bite, pass
the bowl of lemons and the basket of bread like they were holy.