At the end of the world
People will cease
To love and trust each other.
People will stop dreaming
And believing
And hoping.
And the human family
Will begin to crumble
Piece by piece
Like when leaves
Fall off of a tree
Blown by a furious wind
On a cold autumn day.

And God
In a mix of sorrow and fury
Will shake his head in frustration
And decide
That the human experiment
Is over.
And as his beloved paradise,
Earth,
Begins to crumble,
And as His beloved creations,
Man,
Lose themselves in its wake,
He'll begin to wonder
If he was right
To entrust free will
To such a volatile species.

But then
He will remember
That man's legacy
Was not that he was free to kill himself
But that he was free.

And then
God will know
That with freedom
Comes hope
And trust
And love.
And that even if
His paradise is not perfect,
His people can be.