"SURVIVORS": A Poem Inspired By The 1951 Sci-Fi Film, "Five"

SURVIVORS

From Big Ben to the Eiffel Tower

Doomsday warnings wail hour after hour:

Imminent collapse of the human race!

And in a flash the world is laid to waste.

A shocked raggedy-doll stumbles and staggers

Along aimless paths seeking survivors,

While calling out plaintive piteous pleas

Of, “Can anyone help me please!”

The path leads Raggedy-doll to another:

A sensitive Poet and Philosopher

Waving absurdity laid bare and unfurled

Of a once cheap honky-tonk of a world.

Here comes a beetle-browed financier,

Well – just a mere assistant cashier

Counting out a life paid in denial and delusion;

Here he enters in wide-eyed confusion.

Supporting him is the Black Samaritan

Strong of shoulder, pride and passion,

Who once dreamt of being something
more,

Only to end up minding a door.

“I am one who was once blind but can now see;

Who once had settled for a piece of security

In a city where I had never seen the lights,

Nor till now what is important in life.”

The four soon become five

When they save one just barely alive,

Through iron willed-soul so black and depraved

And from whom they will have to be saved.

Beetle-brow cashier now on vacation

Has arrived at his final destination

Which he has yearned for in his dreams

For a whole life-time to him it seems.

“I often dreamt of going on vacation,

But my work was my life’s obligation.

And so I sat behind self-made prison bars

Dreaming of sleeping under the stars!”

The need is felt to stay alive 

As once again four become five 

When Raggedy-doll gives birth to future hope 

Without which our survivors would not cope. 

Iron-will’s hope hides in a fascist fantasy 

That seeks salvation through supremacy 

By force of power, violence and destruction: 

And all that sow the seeds of annihilation. 

“I climbed Mt. Everest. I alone. Always alone. 

And there I’ll sit atop the mountain on my throne 

Invincible and possessed of a special immunity 

With a plundered world spread out below me!”

Clinging to his tattered rags of self-delusion, 

Iron-will’s life force leaks away with the radiation 

Of an inner poison of violence and domination, 

That once robbed a new world of a wise Samaritan.

What of the Poet, Raggedy-doll and Future Hope?

Will they leave behind the Past’s mistakes as they grope

Their way to a new Eden that heals and mends;

Where people work together, live together, like friends?

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Thanks for reading my little poem inspired by and based on the science fiction film,

“FIVE.”

©Chris Christopoulos 2017