Solicitation: Love in the Latter Days

by Richard Meyer

Had we but world enough, and time,
Your coyness, Sheila, were no crime.
You claim that being chaste is wise,
But open up your pretty eyes
And use your lovely head to think.
This globe is poised upon the brink;
The end of days is coming fast—
Extinction by a fission blast,
For war now comes atomic size
And Armageddon’s on the rise.
Life is nasty, brutal, short,
And wanton gods kill us for sport.
As final judgment gathers speed
No savior waits to intercede
And rectify things from above.
There is no time to wait for love.
The tick of time’s a tolling bell;
We’re on the downward slope to hell.
We can, however, cheat our fate.
It’s not too hopeless or too late.
Let’s rob the devil of his due,
Reduce the casualties by two.
Let’s exit from this doomsday road,
Secure ourselves a snug abode,
And fuck until we both explode.