Matt Bell

THE END IS THE END

We enter the village after our long passage
through the darkest parts of the woods,
where there were no paths. We ask for food,
for water, for story. The story begins. Nothing
and the world precedes it. Each word expands
the span of the ground. A girl, then a girl living
red hours, wearing a red dress, then a girl draped
in red, carrying a silver knife. Every object useful
only in the sentence it appears. When the tale
ends, remember there is no future for the girl.
No future for the girl and no future for us
who loved her. Only nothing. Nothing
and the world.

Matt Bell is the author of the novel In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods, as well as two previous books, How They Were Found and Cataclysm Baby.