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Creative Bravery: When the World Ended

We have had the pleasure of collecting art from Capital’s creative and talented students who continue to amaze and influence this campus. I’d like to thank the staff’s enthusiasm and endurance throughout. I’d also like to thank our ReCap advisor, Dr. Kevin Griffith, for his continuous support and guidance. It has been an honor to witness and experience such an inspiring process. It is brave to create. To take risks and explore authenticity. While creating may not be easy, the outcome can be extraordinarily rewarding. To the readers and contributors, thank you and enjoy.

To get your copy of ReCap 2020, visit visit www.recapmag.org or https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1755041.

When the World Ended

Abby Bebout, first-year student, Creative Writing and Literature major

When the world ended, it ended with a bang.

The world wept as lights cascaded down, down, down into the darkness below. The lights began from the inside out, feasting on the good and growing from the bad, lighting from human to human with no discrimination.

When the world ended, it ended.

There was no time to say goodbyes. Lovers drifted apart. Children and parents quarreled. Teenagers left. Humans preach to live each day like it is their last, but the thing about humans is that they don’t even listen to their own words – they just fight with no recollection of the destruction beginning in their heart.

When the world ended.

Something could be said about the way humanity clung to life. If only they weren’t so stubborn, then they wouldn’t be in this mess. If only they weren’t so stubborn, then they wouldn’t be fighting the fire ripping them apart from the inside out. If only they weren’t so stubborn, then they wouldn’t be.

When the world.

Some wondered what the future civilizations would think of them. Would they be the next dinosaurs? Dug up and displayed as future warnings of the world before. Would they be misconstrued as violent means to a violent end? Shown as the vicious humans who took their greed, their passion, their life one step too far. Would they even be?

When.

Humans are known for their fear of death, their fear of the unknown. The young ones sleep with the lights on and the old ones light the night with chatter and the occasional gunshot. They always talked about when they die. When they live. When.

When the world.

Sometimes they forgot to take out the trash, telling their partner or their friend that they would take it out the next day. Sometimes they forgot birthdays, blaming their faulty recollection on an illness that eats away their memories. Sometimes they forgot to say, “I love you.” Sometimes they forgot to live.

When the world began.

The humans taught Adam and Eve. They said, “Let there be light.” They said that the earth was good. They believed that they were good, while ignoring the rot slowly infecting their hearts and seeping through their bloodstream.

When the world began, it began.

There was no declaration. There was no good or evil. No gray area to define. There were no humans, only memories forgotten by a scarred earth. Sometimes the breeze whispered a song, the words an ancient tongue long dead. There just was.

When the world began, it began with a bang.