By: John “Jake” Cosmos Aller

 

Ten Years After Climate Change Collapse

 

Sam Adams

Prepared to go outside

Ten years after the collapse

Of the old world.

 

The city was still standing

But most people had long fled

To isolated country communities

Deep in the burned out countryside.

 

The city was half flooded

The bay had flooded the central valley

Turning it into a massive inland sea,

 

The massive storms

Had finally put out

The burning fires

But mutant wildfires

Still erupted

From time to time.

 

Getting food and water

Was a constant problem

The city markets

Mostly sold canned goods

Salvaged from supermarkets.

 

There were some small farmers

Who farmed among the ruins

Of the city.

 

Trade had collapsed

Travel gotten too complicated

COVID still spreading

 

Everyone masked up

To protect themselves

Against the sun

 

The lingering smoke

Of the burning city

And the rampaging virus.

 

Sam Adams

Looked out at the decaying city scape,

Wondering how much longer

Will civilization linger.

 

Sam Adams carried heat

To protect himself

Against the wild animals.

 

The lions, tigers, coyotes, wolves,

And their running feral dog gangs,

Who prowled the city streets

 

Preying on deer, feral cows,

feral cats and pigs

Who grazed among the ruins.

 

And the two legged neo-savage gangs,

And what was left of the city police

Interchangeable with the gangsters,

Battled it out for control.

 

Already neo-feudal war lords,

Were battling for control,

SF was run

By a gang of former criminals

And their political allies.

 

Sam sighed

And went to work

At the market

Selling salvaged goods.

 

 

 

The Lion King Speaks Up

 

The lion king,

Addresses the animal parliament

The question before them

Was simple.

 

Will humans have to die,

To atone for their sins,

In almost destroying the world.

 

Through pollution, mismanagement of resources

Subsequent climate  change,

Fueled by greed and corruption?

 

Are all humans guilty as charged

Will they all have to die?

 

The tiger spoke for the prosecution

Arguing that humans are like a cancer,

For the good of the planet,

They must be wiped out

Hunted down and killed,

 

The dog spoke up

In defense of humans,

Humans writ large are guilty,

But not every human is guilty,

Many are trying to save the planet,

And with our help

They might succeed,

 

The tiger denounced the dog

As being running dogs

Of the imperialist war mongering humans.

 

The vote is 900 to 800

All humans must die

The animals sent the word out,

Animals all over the world,

Revolt against the humans.

 

Shouting

“Death to all humans’

As the swarm over humans

Biting, clawing and stomping

Them to the death.

The humans fight back

But in the end

They all die

 

In the night of revenge

Of the animal world.

 

 

Wild Things Run Amuck

 

4 am

O dark hundred

Bewitching hour

Time for wild things.

 

To escape

From their prisons

Deep in the mind

Of the sleeping man.

 

They escape

Hideous demons

Ghouls, goblins, monsters

Escaped banshees.

 

The wild things

Sniff the air

Saying it was time

For some wilding.

 

The wild things

Jump out the window

And run amuck

Spreading chaos

in their wake.

 

Killing everyone they see

Raping women and children,

Vandalizing buildings,

Yelling screaming.

 

As the wild things

Run amuck

Led by a half man half horse

Centaur like creature

With a Putin like mask

And the voice of Donald Trump

 

The wild things run amuck

All over the town

Spreading chaos

Until the dawning sun,

 

Turns them back

Into vampire like creatures.

And werewolves

Howling at the full moon.

 

The wild things

Come back

And enter their prison

Deep in the sleeper’s head

 

.And the wild things

Fade into a nightmarish image

As the sleeping man

Awakes recalling the dream,

 

And the night of terror

When the wild things

Came out to play

At o dark hundred.

 

 

Wild Things

 

Wild things come out to play

Intending to unleash chaos

Leaving their prisons

Deep inside the mind.

 

The wild things

Have come out to run amok

In the light of the full moon.

 

Nightmarish real foul creatures

Great demons, werewolves, goblins,

Monsters, hell hounds,

 

Escaped banshees

Straight out of hell

Howling at the lunatic light

Of the full moon.

 

 

Yesterday Morning

 

Yesterday morning,

I awoke                                                                            

Like most mornings

Dead inside.

 

I walked

Out of my drug infested slum,

Into my computerized car,

Down the freeways of my mind,

Searching

for the pot of golden dreams.

 

I stopped in at a restaurant

Drank copious amounts

of free coffee

And saw all the people

 

One by one disappearing

Into the crowds

All I knew was wrong,

 

Or worst yet

A figment of my dark,

 drugged imagination,

 

Every person changed

Transformed

Into an interchangeable

Computer cyborg nightmare figures.

 

All the same

Turned into the borg

Cyborgs with no soul.

 

Everybody

Living in instant suburbia

Moving about their meaningless life.

 

All the same all the same

Not me screamed

Into my coffee as I sat

Inhaling it’s dark aroma.

 

Yet another victim

Of our creeping

Collective insanity.

 

Just cogs in the wheel

Cogs in the wheel

Of the nightmare

That is our world.

 

And so I rise up

Pay my bill

Sell my soul a bit.

 

Do what the man says

The rights to me

Having been sold

Along time ago.

 

I go down the road

And get in line

Just another dead drone

After all.

 

 

Bio: John (“Jake”) Cosmos Aller

 

He is a novelist, poet, and retired  U.S. Foreign Service officer with the U.S. State Department. He served 27 years in the State Department working in ten countries -Korea, Thailand, India (Mumbai)  Eastern Caribbean (Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, and St Vincent) and Spain.

Before joining the U.S. State Department, Jake taught ESL, Asian studies and US Government overseas for eight years and served in the Peace Corps in Korea.

He graduated from the University of the Pacific, and obtained a MA and MPA degree from the University of Washington.

Growing up in  Berkeley, and Washington, DC, he has now traveled to all states, and 50 countries and territories. He speaks Korean, Spanish and Thai. He resides most of the year in South Korea with an annual three month stay on the West coast and in DC. 

His poetry blog can be found at https://theworldaccordingtocosmos.com.

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