two poems

by Makayla Edwards



Google Search History of a Twenty-Something American Writer: Jan. 2026

 

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how many seconds until midnight on the doomsday clock?

 

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Doomsday

 

I awoke to a clock shouting:

“11:58 PM!”

 

I rose from my synthetic bed, went out

into the yard and began digging. Rusted shovel

in hand, I dug a hole in the dirt so deep that when

I looked up at the smoggy sky I saw stars.

 

I once heard if you tunneled far enough you

would end up on the other side of the earth,

a side of the earth where midnight is hours and hours

away. A side of the earth you had yet to know existed.

Shiny and bright and unlike you had ever seen.

 

New world where every day is not marked with

the word  “unprecedented.” New world soft

like baby skin. Silky innocence, untouched by

the harshness of microplastics and fascism.

New world, glowing with possibilities of the next

generation. Un-doomed by toxic amounts of carbon

omitted despite years of warning–no, begging.

Free to breathe deeply and fully.

Just live and live and live.

 

New world where it is not 89 seconds to midnight

where the idea of a clock marking self-destruction

makes people belly laugh so hard that they learn what

it means to not be able to breathe.

 

So I dug and I dug until finally I heard a soft breeze

beneath my feet, trapped on the underside of reality.

I ached to break through the thin barrier, to spill

myself into utopia, but my gut knew the rotting soil

of this world would follow close behind, suffocating

paradise beneath its decaying body.

 

So instead, I crawled out of the soil, piling dirt

on top of purity. The dust still covered my palms

as I bent down to kiss the ground “goodbye.”

 

Later, as I climbed back beneath polyester sheets,

I swear there was a sigh of relief– somewhere.



Photo of Makayla Edwards

BIO: Makayla Edwards is a creative nonfiction writer and occasional poet. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Creative Writing at Ball State University, where she interns for the creative nonfiction journal River Teeth. Makayla’s poetry has been featured in Vast Chasm Magazine. In her free time, she enjoys half-finishing crosswords and shamelessly reading romance novels.

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