Chicxulub

by Natalie Wolf

When the meteor crashed from the heavens,
it lit the skies on fire.

So the dinosaurs didn’t actually die
of starvation and the dust clouds
blocking out the sky but burned
to a crisp like chicken strips in a fryer
that exploded.

Maybe it’s just me,
but lately that sort of cataclysmic event
has been seeming more and more
inevitable.

So if you looked up
and saw flames painting the sky,
what would you think?

That nuclear war had come at last?

That global warming had finally gotten bad?

That the Day of Judgment had begun?

Would it look like the Earth
had become the sun,
like we were finally
the Center of the Universe?

Or would you just be stunned
by the beauty of the lights,

thank God for the final show,

that at least we could go out
with a bang?

Natalie Wolf (https://nwolfmeep.wixsite.com/nmwolf) is a writer and educator from Kansas City. She is a co-founder and co-editor of Spark to Flame Journal and an editor for Ambidextrous Bloodhound Press. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in Popshot Quarterly, Pink Panther Magazine, Right Hand Pointing, I-70 Review, and more.