JOHN ("JAKE") COSMOS ALLER - TOILET GATE FIT METAPHOR FOR THE END OF THE TRUMP AFFAIR AND OTHER POEMS

​John (“Jake”) Cosmos Aller 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. He grew up in Berkeley, and Washington, DC. He has 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.co

Lone Foreigner Hiking the Seoul City Walls
​

​a Lone foreign male hiker
in the hills above the city
Hiking along the ancient Seoul City walls
 
500 years after the founding
Of the city in 1492
                                                 
balancing his walk
amid the boulders
the winter is coming
soon he thinks
 
and finishes his hike
heading to a bar
to sake his thirst
 
some soju, and bulgogi
will do the trick
he thinks to himself
 
just another day
in the life
 
of an unknown nameless
foreigner in the city
of Seoul
 
part of the ten million
naked stories
in the big city
 
 

The Rainbow Beckon
​

​One day a man
Was walking down
A nameless suburban street
 
He saw the rainbow
And walked to the end
Of the rainbow
 
There he saw a leprechaun
Guarding the pot of gold
 
He rushed at him
Shot him dead
Stole the gold
 
Had had a massive heart attack
The leprechaun came back
 
Said do not ya know
The pot of gold
At the end of the rainbow
Is cursed
 
Death will overcome
All who seek to possess it
 

An Old Man Visits His Wife’s Grave  ​

​An Old man
Goes to the grave
Of his beloved wife
 
Carrying her favorite flowers
And a guitar
Playing her love songs
As he remembers her life
 
Blaming it all
On the damn coronavirus Pandemic
Killing thousands every day
As politicians play games
 
The dead remain dead
he hears his wife’s voice
from beyond the grave
 
she is a corona ghost
he wishes he were there with her
as he plays his mournful love songs
 
he lays down for a moment
and becomes another Corona ghost
just another death that lonely day
 

 

Dear Republicans in Congress – what is wrong with you? Open Letter

​Dear Republicans
What the hell is wrong with you people?
I mean seriously, what is wrong with you?
 
Hours after a mob inspired by the president
Storms the capitol
Looking to hurt you
All of you
 
In an assault on democracy
In scenes out of the beginnings
Of the Nazi Era
 
What do you do
What do you say
Do you condemn the attack
 
Do you condemn the President
And vote to kick his sorry ass
Out of power?
 
No, you don’t
You cowards
 
This was one mob
You found a way to excuse.
Even as scores of President Trump’s
usually unfailing loyalists
condemned him for moving too slowly
to call off the swarm of demonstrators
that stormed and ransacked the Capitol,
 
 many of you still could not bring
yourselves to fault the man
he surreal and frightening
attack carried out
 by people he had
just urged to “fight like hell.”
 
You downplayed the violence
as acts of desperation by people
who felt lied to by the news media
and ignored by their elected representatives.
That means you too you know
 You deflected with false equivalencies
about the Democratic Party’s
 embrace of the Black Lives Matter movement.
 
Some of you even tried
to dispute the fact
that Trump supporters
were actually the perpetrators,
suggesting that far-left activists
had infiltrated the crowd
and posed as fans of the president.
 
 
To any insincere, fake DC ‘patriots’ used as PLANTS --
you will be found out,” 
wrote Sarah Palin,
the Republican Party’s vice-presidential nominee in 2008,
 who demanded that the media
look into the allegiances of the people
who smashed their way into the Capitol.
 
Responses like these --
full of misdirection, denial and specious comparisons --
sounded almost like typical fare coming from stalwart defenders
of a president who considers admitting fault to be a sign of weakness.
 
That they persisted in the face of such an extraordinary and unsettling strike
on the seat of American government is a sign of how premature
it may be to conclude
that Mr. Trump’s iron grip on his followers
 
Before Donald Trump’s supporters stormed
a session of Congress last Wednesday with plans to take hostages,
the President himself whipped them into a frenzy.
 
Some will argue the 45th President
did not directly incite the siege
at the US Capitol in Washington DC.
 
But a close look at his remarks --
both immediately preceding the attack
and during his four years in office --
suggests he very carefully
guided his fanatical followers
towards unlawful acts
that resulted in the deaths of five people
 
and that will very likely
see him impeached for a second time.
 
So Republicans how can you defend
The President any more
How can you defend
The undefendable
 
What is wrong with you people
 
That is what we all want to know
Please explain to us all
 
How can you still vote
To not impeach him?

President Words Ring hollow found Poe

The president is clearly guilty
Of instigating the insurrection
Just listen to the words of your president
 
‘These people are not going to take it any longer.
They’re not going to take it any longer …
They came from all over our country.
 I just really want to see what they do’.
 
If those tens of thousands of people
would be allowed —
the military, the Secret Service,
 the police, law enforcement,
you’re doing a great job —
 
but I’d love it if they could be allowed
to come up here with us.
Is that possible?
Can you just let them come up please?”
 
Before Trump spoke,
his attorney, Rudy Giuliani
 called for "trial by combat."
 
And the president's son,
Donald Trump, Jr.,
warned those who are a "zero
not a hero"
that "we are coming for you."
 
"And after this,
we're going to walk down there,
and I'll be there with you,
 
we're going to walk down ...
to the Capitol
 and we are going to cheer
on our brave senators
and congressmen and women,"
 
Trump told the crowd. "
And we're probably not going
to be cheering
so much for some of them.
 
Because you'll never take back
our country with weakness.
You have to show strength
and you have to be strong."
 
We will never give up.
 We will never concede.
 It doesn't happen.
You don't concede
when there's theft involved,"
 
 Trump said.
"Our country has had enough.
 We're not going to take it anymore.
 
His subsequence disavowal
Of the violence
Just ring hallow
 
Had enough yet
America?
 ​