Second Coming

When Jesus comes again to earth, He’ll find

infernal heat and rising seas and waste

strewn worldwide, mountain top to ocean trench.

When, after death, He descended to Hell,

the Christ thought, “It can’t get much worse than this.”

In hindsight, He called that False Judgement Day.

This is unfair, for how could God foresee

carbon footprints, microplastics, greenhouse

gases? When Paradise was first walled in,

commandments given what to eat, what not,

what divine will could have been wise enough

to say, “Do not destroy what God has made.”

If Hell is where God throws away his trash,

what of us is left for the last collection?

Pontiac

The burnt shells of buildings

in downtown East St. Louis

scatter like cowry dropped

hastily in a deal gone bad.

The city is poor and black,

rich in culture and history.

What you made of this

is your contribution.

Just south of the city,

named for the ruling family,

is Sauget, founded as Monsanto, 

after a New Orleans Sephardic family,

home to chemicals, grain elevators,

barge terminals, strip clubs,

and Dead Creek, often aflame.

Still further south, Cahokia,

home of the Camanche,

three time state football champs,

and the historical marker

of the assassination of Pontiac

by a rival Peoria warrior.

All possible interpretations

of these facts are true.