The last drop

October. The Future. The last drop has gone. There is no more oil. The last time anyone had a full tank was two years ago. And that was a Saudi Prince. There was a final flurry of effort to extract oil from the watery deeps but that ended when the last rig capsized. It only took the collapse of fracking in a series of disasters to end all hope of at least some reprieve. There is no substitute fuel to power the millions and millions of automobiles from New York to Nepal. Trucking is over. Paper and plastic are made no more. There is no transportation that can move an orange from Florida to a supermarket anywhere. Ocean shipping is shuttered. The airlines are defunct. Agribusiness is ended. There is no communication. There is no currency that can buy anything. Precious real property is locked away by the top one percent of the top one percent. They live on what they have hoarded, knowing it would come to this. The last drop has gone. Life is hand to mouth.

I puzzle, therefore I am.

— Dusty Harkness