The song that has been playing in my head since shit got real with the Corona Virus is REM’s It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).  I have given up on trying to get it out of my head (pointless, apparently) and have decided to instead embrace it as a theme for a quick fire creativity prompt challenge.  If this helps you write out some of your anxiety, restlessness, or even just your dark humor, all the better.

The Rules

1. Write or create an original piece that embraces the song “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”.  You can use any part of the title or the song lyrics as your piece title or integrate the song title or some part of the lyrics however you like within the written piece
2. I will accept poetry, prose, flash fiction, essay, creative nonfiction or art
3. Pieces of writing should be 1,500 words or less
4. Your submission must be sent to me by email by midnight EST on Tuesday, March 31, 2020 at her.red.pen.wordsmithing@gmail.com.  It should include:
   1. your prompt response
   2. a suggested image (if submitting writing)
   3. a brief biography
   4. a link where readers can see more of your writing/artwork
5. Submissions will be judged by me and at least one guest judge.  (If you are interested in being a guest judge for this challenge, let me know!)
6. I ask that you do NOT publish your response on your own blog or social media pages until it has published first on Brave and Reckless

It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

That’s great, it starts with an earthquake
Birds and snakes, and aeroplanes
And Lenny Bruce is not afraid

Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn
World serves its own needs
Don’t mis-serve your own needs
Speed it up a notch, speed, grunt, no, strength
The ladder starts to clatter
With a fear of height, down, height
Wire in a fire, represent the seven games
And a government for hire and a combat site
Left her, wasn’t coming in a hurry
With the Furies breathing down your neck

Team by team, reporters baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped
Look at that low plane, fine, then
Uh oh, overflow, population, common group
But it’ll do, save yourself, serve yourself
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed
Tell me with the Rapture and the reverent in the right, right
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam fight, bright light
Feeling pretty psyched

It’s the end of the world as we know it
It’s the end of the world as we know it
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine

Six o’clock, T.V. hour, don’t get caught in foreign tower
Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn
Lock him in uniform, book burning, bloodletting
Every motive escalate, automotive incinerate
Light a candle, light a motive, step down, step down
Watch your heel crush, crush, uh oh
This means no fear, cavalier, renegade and steering clear
A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline

It’s the end of the world as we know it (I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it (I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone)
I feel fine (I feel fine)

It’s the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone)

The other night I drifted nice continental drift divide
Mountains sit in a line, Leonard Bernstein
Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs
Birthday party, cheesecake, jellybean, boom
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam but neck, right, right

It’s the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone)

It’s the end of the world as we know it
It’s the end of the world as we know it
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone)
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: John Michael Stipe / Michael E. Mills / Peter Lawrence Buck / William Thomas Berry
It’s The End Of The World As We Know It lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group