Poem: "Here Again, Gone Again"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem is spillover from the April 2, 2024 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from Doug Edwards. It also fills the "Defenestration" square in my 4-1-24 card for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Bingo fest. It has been sponsored by Anthony Barrette.

Warning: This poem is political horror.


"Here Again, Gone Again"


Before the election,
people huddle in parties,
knock on doors all around
their various neighborhoods,
stick signs in the yards and
flyers on the doorknobs.

This historians mutter
definitions of obscure but
useful vocabulary terms
such as "plutocracy"
and "defenestration."

For some people, this
is a patriotic jamboree.

For others, it is an act
of quiet desperation.

It's a last-gasp effort
to hold onto something
worth saving in America
before it comes down to
here again, gone again.

Because they know that
if Trump gets re-elected
(despite the hate speech,
sex crimes, dozens of felonies,
and probable dementia), then
a significant number of

the women
and the blacks
and the Pagans
and the queerfolk
and the immigrants

and the other freaks
who keep things running

will look at each other and say,
"Screw this, I'm out of here!"
 

Comments

[siliconshaman]

Ya know.. it's probably just as well for Western civilisation that we've run out of empty places to go settle in, otherwise a whooooole lot of folks whom aren't welcome in the mainstream would've upped and left.

I'm betting if Mars colonisation becomes a thing, Elon is going to find that the people applying, aren't the one he would like.

[acelightning73]

They just didn't build the means for leaving early enough in my lifetime. I'd probably be somewhere urban, like Luna City. Or else I'd have my own asteroid ;-)

[siliconshaman]

If they'd continued where Apollo left off, and there was serious consideration of doing that, we would've had a permanently manned base on the Moon for the last forty years by now.

sigh

Lets hope they get that life extension drug approved soon, I mean, it works in dogs. We're going to need it at the rate things are progressing just to last long enough!

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> If they'd continued where Apollo left off, and there was serious consideration of doing that, we would've had a permanently manned base on the Moon for the last forty years by now. <<

If only. But this is what happens when it's all about the cockfight, not really about exploration.

>> Lets hope they get that life extension drug approved soon, I mean, it works in dogs. <<

With 8 billion homs on board and climate change run wild, that is the last thing we need.

Re: Thoughts

[siliconshaman]

It wasn't even about weaner-fencing between Russia and the USA. Nixon didn't want to hand over a successful lunar program to Ford, so he finished what Johnson started and axed Apollo and put NASA on hold financially.

As for the life extension thing, I think you're looking at it the wrong way. There is a direct inverse correlation between average life span and number of children... the longer people live, the less children they have. Plus, hopefully if people know they're going to live (healthily) into their 200's they might start taking a bit of responsibility for climate change, since they'll be around to answer for ti.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> As for the life extension thing, I think you're looking at it the wrong way. There is a direct inverse correlation between average life span and number of children... the longer people live, the less children they have. <<

Eventually, yes. It's why developed nations have lower birth rates, many below replacement even. The problem is, that takes time to kick in. Whenever you extend lifespan or health, there's always a lag in birth rate response. It's how we got the the overpopulation we have now: survival went up, death went down, and it took a while before the birth rate dropped in response.

>> Plus, hopefully if people know they're going to live (healthily) into their 200's they might start taking a bit of responsibility for climate change, since they'll be around to answer for ti.<<

The people who can afford that kind of health treatment are also able to escape the consequences of their bad choices, at least enough that it doesn't make them behave better. They might eventually realize they fucked up, but it'd be far too late for them, or the rest of us.

[acelightning73]

Everything I've read about prolonging life would lead to such hardship for me that it wouln't be living, it would just be punishment for being mortal. Exercise, eat dirty smelly plants that make me gag, avoid alcohol and drugs, avoid sugar, fat, and salt, wear a face mask to avoid contagion, and be born to two perfectly healthy people.

[siliconshaman]

Well, yeah if you're doing it the conventional way... but there's a new drug that inhibits the degrading of your telomeres, prolonging your life (and health) without all that unpleasant business. The woman that invented it wanted to increase the life span of her pet dogs, (perfectly understandable!) but it's being put through trials to see if it works as well in people. If it does then just taking that on a daily basis should result in a 30-50% increase in life span with no changes to to the way you live.

[acelightning73]

Well, if ordinary human beings get access to it, I'd love to reset my telomeres. But if it's something only Bill Gates and Orange Toupee can afford, maybe we'll find out that living in zero-G allows us to live longer, because we're not wearing ourselves out trying to stand upright.

(And if our pets live longer, who's going to welcome us when we cross the Rainbow Bridge?)

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

It would be enough trouble if it was distributed fairly, for free. What's more likely is it will go to the rich, who already have at least an extra decade over everyone else. And they can largely afford to insulate themselves from the problems they cause with climate change.

Sure, most humans will do anything for a few extra years. But that doesn't make it a good idea. *ponder* In fact, if I'm doing the math right, it puts them smack in gutterball territory, where you've outlived the things and people you grew up with, but not long enough to reach a whole new world. Hell, if they're dumb enough to take that bait, they deserve what they're going to get with it.