The world's end came as a small dot
---at the end of a sentence. Everybody died
without ado, and nobody cried
---enough to show the measure of it.
God said: 'I do not love you', quite
---quietly, but with a final note;
it seemed the words caught in his throat,
---or else he stifled a yawn as the trite*
phrase escaped his dust-enlivening lips.
---At least, there was no argument,
no softening tact, no lover's cant**,
---but sudden vacuum, total eclipse
of sense and meaning. The world had gone
---and everything on it, except the lives
all of us had to live: the wives,
---children, clocks which ticked on,
unpaid bills, enormous powder-blocks
---chock full of arms demanding peace,
and the prayerful in a state of grace
---pouncing on bread and wine like hawks.
*trite
-Lacking power to evoke interest through overuse or repetition; hackneyed.
Archaic. Frayed or worn out by use.
**cant
-Monotonous talk filled with platitudes.
-Hypocritically pious language.
-Whining speech
