Live Among The Shadows
Big Daddy
Lived in the shadows
He did not exist.
He was a cipher
A nameless Govbot
He was a spook
He was invisible.
He was a secret agent man
He had many names
Many fake identities.
So many tales he told.
He no longer knew
What was true
Or just another lie.
No one knew his real name
Just “Big Daddy”
To those in the know
He floated through life
In the shadow world
Death following him
In his wake.
As he carried out
his secret missions
For an agency
that did not exist.
he thought that
when he died
no one would mourn him,
for no one knew him.
who he was
lost in the shadows
He was fine with that
the price of living
in the shadow worlds.
What Is Love, Tell Me If You Know
What is love, tell me if you know
Love is what it is
Those who know don’t tell
And those who tell don’t know
Do you know what love is, Joe?
And how can you make it grow?
More than just biochemistry
It is pure madness
What is love, tell me if you know
Love is what it is
And sometimes
Love is what it ain’t
That’s the Zen of love
What is love, tell me if you know
Based loosely on the classic Tower of Power Song, “What is hip?”
What Is Hip Lyrics
[Verse 1]
So ya wanna dump out yo’ trick bag
Ease on in a hip thang
But you ain’t exactly sure what is hip
So you started to let your hair grow
Spent big bucks on your wardrobe
Somehow, ya know there’s much more to the trip
[Chorus]
What is hip?
Tell me, tell me, if you think you know
What is hip?
If you’re hip
The question, “Will it show?”
You’re into a hip trip
Maybe hipper than hip
What is hip?
[Verse 2]
You became a part of a new breed
Been smoking’ only the best weed
Hangin’ out with the so-called “Hippie set.”
Seen in all the right places
Seen with just the right faces
You should be satisfied, but it ain’t quite right
[Chorus]
What is hip?
Tell me, tell me, if you think you know
What is hip?
If you’re hip
The question, “Will it show?”
You’re into a hip trip
Maybe hipper than hip
What is hip?
[Break]
Come on
[Refrain]
Hipness is. What it is
Hipness is. What it is
Hipness is. What it is
Sometimes hipness is, what it ain’t
The Market Rules Us All
The market rules all
We are nothing but products
The rights to us
Have long been sold
Bow down and worship
The all-mighty market
Everything we do
Everything we see
Everything we are
Nothing but our brand
Nothing human left over
Nothing authentic left over
Nothing but lies
Fake news
nonsense
The world does not care one whit
About you and me
As people
It is all about the profits that can be made
By exploiting our labour
And once we are used up
We become a liability
And a burden
If you have not made it to the top
By age 55
You are a loser
And should be retired
Forced to live out your life
On your miserable pension
As you wait to die
No longer useful
To the Masters of the Universe
And true love
Nothing but an illusion
It is all about the sex, baby
And how getting your baby
Ahead at all costs
Who cares about love?
It is nothing
But a secondhand emotion
As the song puts it
Love is nothing but a sexual commodity
And we are all nothing but interchangeable
Commodities in the marriage and love market
And porno values rule the bedroom
As we are nothing more than used body parts
Who cares about friendship?
It is all about how they can use you
And you can use them
To get ahead
True Love and genuine connections
Cannot survive
In this toxic soup
In the modern materialist world
God and spirituality
Nothing but a scam
As our so call Christian Leaders
Proclaim their love for you
All they love is your donations
And they too are part of the market
Jesus if he ever comes back
Will no doubt
Be used to sell more goods
As the right to Jesus
Has also been sold
Green Trees Don’t Make It
Everyday
I look out and see
The ugly green trees
Standing guard
in front of my house
And I think to myself
Who owns the trees?
And what do they think of us?
Are we their friends?
Are we their enemies?
Do the trees think?
Or do they silently watch us,
Spies to the celestial emperor?
I have pondered this question
Many a morning
Who is the owner of these trees?
And why do they silently watch us?
I wonder if the trees don’t hate us
And why they don’t protest
Every day as we drive back and forth
Emitting poison gases
from our mechanical asses
Right into their unprotected faces
And every night
we eat our dinner
And then give the trees
Our polluted leftovers
And laugh as they silently die
From our acidic fallout
Constantly floating
down on their skin
Yes, I wonder about the trees
And the birds and the bees
And everyone else
What are they thinking?
Are they plotting revenge?
Or are they merely there
Silently, watching, plotting,
Designing fiendish plots of revenge
Dreams of vast nuclear destruction
Cosmic diseases wiping out
everyone in the ass
Yes, I wonder
and dream and ponder
What is the meaning
of those silent green trees?
Standing on the corner
Quietly condemning us
With their quiet tears,
and falling leaves
In the winter they stand
Naked and alone
Covered with ice-cold snow
As we drive by nice and warm
And we don’t care
As they stand out
in the cold
Shivering, plotting warm plans
of cosmic revenge
Is it too late for us
To become friends with the trees?
Or will the day come
When the trees will wake up
And gather together
All of the other
slaves of humanity
I have a vision
One morning
I will open the door
And see an army of wild things
Led by the green trees
Coming to arrest me
For crimes against nature
And I will plead,
I did not know
And they will laugh
and turn me
all of my kind
Into silent tombs
And we will stand
out in the cold
Like the green trees
Plotting dreams of revenge
Forever and ever
Until our day finally comes
And we can go out
and kill all the wild things
Perhaps we already have
First earth day poem written in 1977
The Communists Are Out to Get You!
Watching right-wing politicians
And news pundits
One can’t help
But wonder
If we are living
In a strange alternative universe
For to hear
The line of Marjorie Taylor Greene
It is 1955 all over again
Communism is on the march
Marxists out to destroy America
Radical left-wing demons
trying to cancel
Normal patriotic white Americans
Who dares to stand up
To the communists
All around us
And they fill the airwaves
And the internet
With constant fear
And paranoia
About the alleged
Communist Paedophile Satanic
LGBT Trannie conspiracy
to turn us all gay
And the black life matters folks
And Antifa
Coming to kill white people
And to take away our guns
And other fear-mongering memes
24/7
Be Afraid be Afraid
The commies are after you.
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 over ten countries including Korea, Thailand, India, Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Spain. He has travelled to over 50 countries, and 49 out of 50 states. He speaks Korean, Thai, Spanish and studied Chinese, Hindi and Arabic.
You can find more of Jake’s work here on Ink Pantry.