From "Einsteinn's Dreams" by Alan Lightman

The world will end on 26 September 1907. Everyone knows it.
In Berne, just as in all cities and towns, schools close their doors.
Why learn for the future, with so brief a future?
One month before the end, businesses close.
At the outdoor cafes on Amthausgasse, people sit and sip coffee
And talk easily of their lives.
A liberation fills the air.
In the shadows of a street off Aarbergergasse, a man and a woman
Lean against a wall, drink beer and eat smoked beef.
Afterwards, she will take him to her apartment.
She is married to someone else, but for years
She has wanted this man,
And she will satisfy her wants on this last day of the world.
A few souls gallop through the street,
Doing good deeds, attempting to correct their misdeeds of the past.
Theirs are the only unnatural smiles.
One minute before the end of the world,
Everyone gathers on the grounds of the Kunstmuseum.
Men, women and children form a giant circle and hold hands.
No one moves.
No one speaks.
It is so absolutely quiet that each person can hear the heartbeat
Of the person to his right or to his left.
This is the last minute of the world.
A cloud floats in the sky.
A sparrow flutters.
No one speaks.
In the last seconds, it is as if everyone has leaped
Off Topaz Peak, holding hands.
The end approaches like approaching ground.
Cool air rushes by, bodies are weightless.
The silent horizon yawns for miles.
And below, the vast blanket of snow
Hurtles nearer and nearer
To envelope this circle of pinkness and life.
.
[Einstein's Dreams, a novel, reads like verse
and was published in 1995]