Is this a dream?

Please let it be a dream,
a convoluted
non-sense
nightmare
of sinister clowns and cretins,
a dream of being  
lost or chased
stumbling
through darkness
terrified,
a perception of falling,
grasping at empty space.

If it were a nightmare,
at least I could wake up,
maybe even rousing myself
with screams of terror,
but
then I’d feel safe again.

This much hate and ignorance,
evil greed,
utter chaos
can’t be reality –
can it?
The world can’t sustain
the weight
of this much
depravity.

If I cried as much
as I need to
my 60-some percent water
would dissipate,
evaporate
into the abyss
that’s forming,
deepening,
followed by a lifeless body
dead and shriveled
like a sand-colored autumn leaf
making its spiritless descent
into the nothingness
of decay.

Is this the way the world will end?

Humanity gone,
defeated,
beaten down.
replaced by uncaring callousness,
war and destruction
bombs and bloodshed,
people fleeing
with nowhere
to go,
no one to trust.
Children crying
for the planet,
crying for their lack
of future,
crying for life.

Has time run out for humankind?

Can no one
wake me
from this dream?