End of Time: An Oral History

i came across

an unknown tribe

in a forest of steel

and cinder blocks

they drank parsnip soup

from police helmets

raised chickens

and purple hollyhocks

they taught me that

the cockroach emits

a piercing scream

and when Ghenhis Khan’s

head appears

not to lose my self esteem

together

we split apart

the vacuum cleaner bag

reaped the dust

for our tortilla flour

and suppressed the urge

to gag

but those odd souls

they’re gone for good

spineless yes-men

now roam the Earth

pumping blood

into the Linzer torte

hawking neck cheese

and afterbirth

they argue 

about the walrus

how his horn’s not

bony after all

but instead encased

in leathery skin

like a salami

or a football

they snap it off

watch and wait

soft liver spills

into their boots

rotten pears appear

and then burst open

inside their birthday suits

their senators

and corporate fish

have all but stopped evolving

they secrete universal acid

no bottle can hold it

and the earth

is slowly dissolving

                                                         

 

Reviews

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

the first three lines really got me - it made me smile and set the tone for this work:
i came across
an unknown tribe
in a forest of steel
... that turn was surprising and ironic, i really liked it. this verse really starts world-building in a fantastic way - it is an absurd tale, but so is the world we currently live in. and we shan't forget Absurdism was a political not just aesthetic movement, and it has been brought back to life here in this piece.
our world really makes no sense. nothing. and it does seem like some reckoning is on the horizon. i hope we d not all die. i hope what comes after is a better world. but whatever happens will happen and the only true antidote is laughter. works like this brings me that medicine.

[SkinlessFrank]

Thanks Ern. I like your reaction to the events that buffet us around uncontrollably. We can feel so caught up in things that we forget to laugh.

[Eilis]

I read this the other night and thought I would review it, so it was nice to find it here at the top of your page. I felt, when I read this, like I felt the first time I read Fahrenheit 451. The concept of people committing books to memory to save them and what that actually means for human culture. The gravity of what we lose when we give others control of our minds.

So many dystopian stories have seemed purely fantastical but time changes all things. We make gains but then those gains are often corrupted by those seeking personal gain over good for all. Good gains seem temporary to some degree or as though what’s good will be sucked out and converted to something other. There can still be goodness there but it gets buried under the flotsam and jetsam of distortions and selfish intent and a sort of devolutionary tilt in human behavior. Here we are living it in so many ways all around the world.

The surreal nature of your images strikes a nerve because we are swirling in absurdity at the moment and we recognize these people and their careless corruptive influence on our societies.

The tangible, the simple, the easy to articulate side of human-being seems to dissolve more and more each year. Sometimes these days I feel like we are living in something so artificial there is danger of losing those true connections we’ve forged between ourselves and true existence over time. The feel of feet on earth and separate from any algorithm that commands that connection. A pure desire to be and understand outside of destructive constructs. I hope we have it within us to remember the important things and help them rise toward the top again someday.

[SkinlessFrank]

Thanks for your insightful comments. It reminds me to see the goodness, search for it, and be it on those days when I feel that the Earth is spinning off its axis.

[DIVYA]

"soft liver spills
into their boots"

This and so many other images make this poem oh so enjoyable. I just went with the flow and loved it absolutely.

[. serah .]

-- hmmm... i majored in history in my B.A. and whenever i read about the downfall of a glorious civilization... i used to think of how survivors (when there were survivors) would actually live... -- it startles me to study my own life after it collapsed... -- but i don't see just the bleakness of all of that on this page... i see millions of metaphors merge into an allegory... which is courageously and meticulously reinforcing at least the freedom of expression... -- it's just no possible to suffer in silence... -- glad you said what you had to say...

[alanwgraham]

I really enjoyed this. I don't want to analyse it too much - just enjoy the flow of brilliant imagery.
Well done!
Would you mind having a look at my poem 'Henry Moore - shapeshifter' if you have time?
Thanks,
Alan

[...]

Parsnip soup, chickens, and hollyhocks...random, and funny, but the rest of it...not so much. There is an epidemic of "spineless yes-men" and people that can't see, won't see, and just don't give a s**t about walrus's, hollyhocks, drinkable water, love, or anything that isn't plastic or fiat or nuclear. But, who's to blame? Them? Or us for letting them, even joining them?

[poet_feefee]

Your poems make me react physically. I like this. It's not in a way that I am yearning for something I have felt before, but it is because your imagery continually presents ideas and creates reactions I have not experienced before. The word combinations are unique.

[J.P. Bristow]

This is epic! Your pen is gifted...your voice a benediction to Mithras...we'll done.

[Kenneth The Poet]

The last stanza should be on the tombstone of humanity.

[asdarkeyesclose]

'soft liver spills
into their boots'

the slowing burning revulsion that is modern life. maybe it is time to see it as it really is and hate it all the more.