JOHN ("JAKE") COSMOS ALLER - POEMS

John (“Jake”) Cosmos Aller is a novelist, poet, and former Foreign Service officer having served 27 years with the U.S. State Department serving in ten countries (Korea, Thailand, India, the Eastern Caribbean (Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts, St Lucia, and St Vincent) and Spain. Prior to joining the U.S. State Department, Jake taught overseas for eight years. Jake served in the Peace Corps in Korea. He grew up in Berkeley but has lived in Seattle, Stockton, Washington DC, Alexandria, Virginia and Medford, Oregon. He has traveled to over 45 countries and 49 states. He has been writing poetry, fiction, and novels for years. He has completed four SF novels and is seeking publication. His work has appeared in numerous literary magazines online. His poetry blog can be found at https://theworldaccordingtocosmos.com

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Worst Year Ever
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​2017 How Much I despise You
Following 2016 the second worst year ever
Will 2018 be any better ?  
 
And what we have suffered
The darkness settles on the land
Like a curse on the land
 
As our mad demented senile dotard king wannabe
Struts about the worlds stage
Ushering Americas  inevitable decline
 
As America’s foes and friends wonder
Has America gone mad
Turing over ultimate power to this man
A con man narcistic criminal
 
Self proclaimed smartest man in the room
In reality a clueless reality TV hustler
Whose sell by date has expired
 
As he tries to make America great again
For white Christian men
 
The rest of the country struggles
To cope with the ever declining standard of living
 
The 1 percent loved the stock market
Love the dismantling of  the regulatory state
The corporate tax cuts
 
and the coming plunder of the land
Can Disney Yellowstone be the future?
 
While the rest of the world
Embraces the energy of the future
And this great denier of the truth
Wants to boldly take America back
 
To the 19th century era of oil, and coal
 
Yet perhaps it does not matter in the end
As long as we have one another
 
The darkness will come
But it will go away someday soon
The great American nightmare will be over
 
This is what I pray for 2018
The end of the darkness
that consumes our land

​ 
As I walk along the Oregon Coast
I am filled with such dismal thoughts
 
I see the waves come and go
And the world continues on its journey
 
And think back on the year that was
The best and worst year of my life
 
In many ways it was  a banner year
For me and my family
 
Settled into retirement
Finally fixing up our properties
Sorting out our retirement options
 
Getting going on my writing
And growing ever closer
To my one and only soul mate
 
Yet I can not be content
As I see the gathering storm clouds
On the horizon
As I fear the end of the American Republic
As the fascists cheer on their champion
Our great leader the man in orange
 
As he sinks into senility
And the US becomes a second rate power
I remain afraid
That soon they will come after me
For writing intemperate thoughts
For starting a blog in these dark and dangerous times
For joining the resistance in my heart
And so with these dark thoughts
I walk back to the hotel
And see my wife there
 
And the darkness lifts
And I realize it will all be okay
As long as I have her by my side
 
The darkness lifts once again
And I look forward to the coming year
Filled with love and grace
 
And hope that the national darkness
Does not consume my soul

 

Fake Calls
​​

​Every day I get woken up
As the sun comes up
By my phone ringing
With a fake call
 
It seems that the only people
Who ever bother to call me
Are the fake call people
Who all call me
With fake sincerity
 
Offering me a great deal
On this and that scam
 
I curse at them
Yell at them
Mutter obscenities in foreign tongues
And block their calls
 
Yet it does not seem to matter
The next call will be
Yet another fake call
 
Am I doomed to receive
Fake calls until I day I die
 
I turn on my computer
And read my fake news accounts
And watch TV for the latest fake news
 
And the politicians lying
And the criminals scheming
To take my money
 
The Zappa song comes to mind
 
You will obey me while I lead you
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we don't need you
Don't go for help . . . no one will heed you
Your mind is totally controlled
It has been stuffed into my mold
And you will do as you are told
Until the rights to you are sold

That's right, folks . . .
Don't touch that dial
 
And I scream to the universe
Just leave me alone
Then the phone rings…..

 

Waking Up to Love
​

​Night time
0 dark hundred hours
Wild things come out to play
 
As they take over my dreams
And my nightmares
Day after day
 
Torturing me with dark thoughts
The sun comes up
I see the love of my life
She smiles at me
 
And the darkness
The dark nightmares
Disappear into thin air
The power of love

 

What Am I DNA Fortune Cookies  Prose Poem Version
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​I just finished two rounds of DNA testing
The results were shocking and unreal
They revealed much of what I knew
And left gapping holes in my past life
 
The one thing that I know for sure
Is that I am 100 percent American
100 percent Californian
100 percent Berkeley
Yes I am Berkeley enough
 
The tests say that I am mostly Scandinavian 
Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, perhaps Finnish and perhaps Laplander
That I know is real
 
The tests also reveals that I have lots of Irish, Scottish, and Welsh background – also true
The tests hint at Jewish ancestry also hinted in family lore
 
The surprises were that they missed most of my native ancestry
Apparently the lost tribe of the Cherokees are lost to the DNA data base as well
 
The test failed to recognize my substantial German heritage missing my German last name
The test also claimed that I have Italian and Southeast European ancestors
 
And the tests claim that I have Eastern European ancestry perhaps Russian
And the tests claim that like most people with Eastern European roots
I am part Mongolian  thanks to Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun
 
The real surprise though is the African American that popped up
That is also consistent with my mother’s tangled history
the lost tribe of the Cherokees ran away into the hills
and mixed in with Scott Irish mountain farmers and runaway slaves
 
in the end the DNA tests neither confirmed
nor denied my family tangled history
leaving many questions behind
almost as enigmatic as a fortune cookie
or a astrological prediction