Poem: "The Aftermath of Disaster"
Jul. 17th, 2021 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithBased on an audience poll, this is the free epic for the July 6, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl reaching its $200 goal. It is spillover from the June 1, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from siliconshaman. It also fills the "Opportunity" square in my 6-1-21 card for the Cottoncandy Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the Big One thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.
"The Aftermath of Disaster"
[July 2016]
The Big One destroyed
much of the West Coast, but
it has left opportunity in its wake.
Now people are finding things
that are better than before.
Amidst the ruins of Rain City,
the Quatrefoil has established
a tent community, Camp Hope.
People no longer look down on
them for being homeless, because
now everyone is homeless here.
Jeffery Kemp is the leader.
He handles the survival issues
and shows interested people how
to mend just about anything.
Dana Crocket organizes
the wilderness skills. On
the lawns, the rabbits are
breeding like, well, rabbits
so there's plenty to eat.
Aalap Mahato manages
foreign refugees and
leads yoga classes.
March Guerrero has
set up a security system
of veterans and volunteers,
and when she's not busy
monitoring all of that, she
demonstrates self-defense.
They have even gotten
the superheroes and
the supervillains more
or less working together.
Everything is still a mess,
but it's their mess now.
In Mercedes, it's a madhouse
because this is the last stop
before the roads get too rough
for traffic to travel reliably.
Blainn is ... surprisingly okay.
Boss Finn has the city well in hand
by now, and the car thieves are
shut the hell down because there's
no way to drive over broken roads,
and everyone is looking to her for
guidance amidst the mayhem.
It's better than it was, especially
comparing with all the stories that
folks tell about a couple years back
when it was pretty much run by forks.
Blainn feels very grateful that he
didn't stumble into town any sooner.
Things are going well for him
in the aftermath, though.
People no longer ask him
if he has graduated high school
or if he is going to college.
Instead they ask things like,
"Do you know how to pitch a tent?"
(Yes, several different styles.)
"Do you speak Esperanto?"
(Some; enough to get by.)
"Can you use a chainsaw?"
(No, but he'd love to learn.)
There is always, always work
to be done and never quite
enough hands to do all of it.
The food is plentiful, handed out
from soup kitchens and food carts
to everyone who is working.
Blainn takes the work, and he
takes every class that anyone
offers on something useful, so
he's building a lot of skills.
He thinks that by the time
the mess is cleaned up,
five years or so from now,
he'll be well established
as an odd-jobber here.
Dr. Infanta has lost
a number of properties
on the West Coast, but
she doesn't really care.
It's just stuff, and she
knows better than most
how fleeting that can be.
She hikes through bracken
and broken concrete in search
of redwood stumps, seeking
the ones still quietly alive
that she can return to health.
Some of these trees are people,
and now that everyone knows this,
it's safe to bring them out of hiding.
Dr. Infanta will help them as best
she can, and spread the good news.
They're getting a lot of the land that
once belonged to humans who have
fled to safer places never to return.
The situation is still awful, but it's
better this way, and they can go on.
In any great loss of life and upheaval
of what was, this remains the same:
It is the survivors who must inherit
the tribulation, sorrow, and triumphs
that are the aftermath of disaster.
They will find the way forward.
* * *
Notes:
The Quatrefoile was introduced in "Constantly Tossed About."
"And it is youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war."
-- Herbert Hoover
siliconshaman. It also fills the "Opportunity" square in my 6-1-21 card for the Cottoncandy Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the Big One thread of the Polychrome Heroics series."The Aftermath of Disaster"
[July 2016]
The Big One destroyed
much of the West Coast, but
it has left opportunity in its wake.
Now people are finding things
that are better than before.
Amidst the ruins of Rain City,
the Quatrefoil has established
a tent community, Camp Hope.
People no longer look down on
them for being homeless, because
now everyone is homeless here.
Jeffery Kemp is the leader.
He handles the survival issues
and shows interested people how
to mend just about anything.
Dana Crocket organizes
the wilderness skills. On
the lawns, the rabbits are
breeding like, well, rabbits
so there's plenty to eat.
Aalap Mahato manages
foreign refugees and
leads yoga classes.
March Guerrero has
set up a security system
of veterans and volunteers,
and when she's not busy
monitoring all of that, she
demonstrates self-defense.
They have even gotten
the superheroes and
the supervillains more
or less working together.
Everything is still a mess,
but it's their mess now.
In Mercedes, it's a madhouse
because this is the last stop
before the roads get too rough
for traffic to travel reliably.
Blainn is ... surprisingly okay.
Boss Finn has the city well in hand
by now, and the car thieves are
shut the hell down because there's
no way to drive over broken roads,
and everyone is looking to her for
guidance amidst the mayhem.
It's better than it was, especially
comparing with all the stories that
folks tell about a couple years back
when it was pretty much run by forks.
Blainn feels very grateful that he
didn't stumble into town any sooner.
Things are going well for him
in the aftermath, though.
People no longer ask him
if he has graduated high school
or if he is going to college.
Instead they ask things like,
"Do you know how to pitch a tent?"
(Yes, several different styles.)
"Do you speak Esperanto?"
(Some; enough to get by.)
"Can you use a chainsaw?"
(No, but he'd love to learn.)
There is always, always work
to be done and never quite
enough hands to do all of it.
The food is plentiful, handed out
from soup kitchens and food carts
to everyone who is working.
Blainn takes the work, and he
takes every class that anyone
offers on something useful, so
he's building a lot of skills.
He thinks that by the time
the mess is cleaned up,
five years or so from now,
he'll be well established
as an odd-jobber here.
Dr. Infanta has lost
a number of properties
on the West Coast, but
she doesn't really care.
It's just stuff, and she
knows better than most
how fleeting that can be.
She hikes through bracken
and broken concrete in search
of redwood stumps, seeking
the ones still quietly alive
that she can return to health.
Some of these trees are people,
and now that everyone knows this,
it's safe to bring them out of hiding.
Dr. Infanta will help them as best
she can, and spread the good news.
They're getting a lot of the land that
once belonged to humans who have
fled to safer places never to return.
The situation is still awful, but it's
better this way, and they can go on.
In any great loss of life and upheaval
of what was, this remains the same:
It is the survivors who must inherit
the tribulation, sorrow, and triumphs
that are the aftermath of disaster.
They will find the way forward.
* * *
Notes:
The Quatrefoile was introduced in "Constantly Tossed About."
"And it is youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war."
-- Herbert Hoover
(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-18 05:30 am (UTC)'mnotsorry, I loved that kid from the moment I laid eyes on her. Fuck the rules, do what's RIGHT... and if that seems a little harsh to some poor souls? They should watch a pod of orcas for a while.
Thoughts
Date: 2021-07-18 06:39 am (UTC)Yeah, as soon as it came clear that redwoods can be persons, some of them with helpful superpowers like rainmaking and earthquake buffering, T-America responded by protecting them and helping to restore them.
Here, people are stupid. I mean, California is always whining about how they need more water, but they have almost all the redwood territory and I do not see them planting redwoods. People know these trees are terraformers. They know the trees are cloudwringers. But they don't act on that information. If they would restore the double belt of coastal and mountain redwoods, planting each everywhere they could possibly grow, that would do a great deal to restore the proper rain cycle. Even reforesting other types of trees is helpful in maintaining the water table. People just ... don't want to. >_<
>> And the good Doctor! <<
*chuckle* I could see people calling her that, especially in the Maldives. Or to jerk with anyone calling her a supervillain. I imagine that doesn't go over at all well down there, given that she's building out the superpowered branch of their medical system.
>> 'mnotsorry, I loved that kid from the moment I laid eyes on her. Fuck the rules, do what's RIGHT... and if that seems a little harsh to some poor souls? <<
:D I'm happy to hear that.
>> They should watch a pod of orcas for a while.<<
LOL Thalassia has a pod of orcas, the Blackguards.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-07-18 03:31 pm (UTC)I'm endlessly befuddled by people who think animals have Blue and Orange Morality.
Humans as a species are very protective each other and our young - but not always. Just like cetaceans.
Humans play with stuff until it breaks, and will try to eat just about everything - just like cephalopods. (Bonus: we do eat cephalopods.)
Humans are property-owning apes predators, which function in loving, protective family units, just like wolves.
Introverts /are/ cats.
Etc, etc. We are all more alike than we realize.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-07-19 10:16 pm (UTC)Meanwhile tribal folks are like, "Why don't you just ask them?" Duh.
This floored me
Date: 2021-07-18 06:48 pm (UTC)Re: This floored me
Date: 2021-07-19 10:11 pm (UTC)What in particular did you find so surprising and moving about this one? It's really just an extension of several previous poems.
Re: This floored me
Date: 2021-07-19 10:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-01-14 05:45 pm (UTC)Not quite fuzzy feelings, but the hope is felt :)
Yes ...
Date: 2024-01-14 08:49 pm (UTC)I have ulterior resources, I have a few Huorns in my yard here, so I've always known that trees can be people. In Terramagne, some of them are much more lively and interactive. Particular to the Big One thread, redwood trees are huge and ancient and powerful. Some of them are awake and interactive enough to deal with humans directly. "As Giants and Patriarchs" is one such example.
>> Not quite fuzzy feelings, but the hope is felt :)
That's what I was aiming for. It takes time for the West Coast to start recovering and functioning again. They're looking at 5+ years to fix major infrastructure like roads and railways; even then, not all of it will ever get fixed.