David Jalajel


14 SNAPSHOTS FROM THE ARK (SURVIVORS)

     “Human interests cannot be the be-all and end-all of an ecopoem.”
     — John Shoptaw  


Capybara?

Something a bit like hamsters, 
giant prehistoric hamsters.

And to go with the hamsters, 
we’ll get giant newspapers 

we can shred. Then we’ll make 
giant cages to put them in.

And giant hamster wheels 
to generate our electricity. 

And for crimes that are
punishable by death, we’ll

train them to be carnivorous.
But also giant carrots, for treats.



Clam

Your creative essential for 
crafting electrical appliances.

Yes, let’s put a major high-end 
bottleneck resource deep

beneath the ocean. Make 
people take the most broken,

game-ending, bug-oriented 
mount to get there, only to be 

mauled by 20 sharks when
they finally reach the clams.

And that’s how we discover 
the joys of chowder? As if.



Coelacanth

It’s great if you want some decorative fishpond thing. 
Otherwise, here’s the world’s most pathetic Pokémon.

But, at last, a water creature does the classic “Strap on
C-4, attack, BOOM!” move. It has vocal cords, right?

It slithers on land a short distance before suffocating, 
and its carcass makes a fantastic toy for kids of all ages. 

With a brain filling less than 1% of the surrounding skull,
its prone to fly through the air from memory lag. 

Occupies other river-swelling creatures’ spawn points, so
if you’re having trouble harvesting otters, kill some fish.

It’s not extinct, it’s African. So what about the nametag?
The South African species is critically endangered, right?



Coral

Reefs are an obstacle to progress. You
can’t build on them, nor mine them.

You can’t even obliterate them. We
need a way to kill off a coral reef.

They had wanted to build a bridge 
to span the bay, so I drafted blueprints.

4 days out from shore, I’m dropping 
another pillar. And then we hit it.

We can’t place pillars on the reef nor
blast it to gain access to the sea floor.

Disaster. The half-built bridge is useless. 
And global warming isn’t doing the trick.
 


Dromedary

It offers you its water
any time your throat 

feels parched, but 
this gentle canteen

is your finest teacher
for what it means

to lose someone. It’s a pro 
at dying. Best let it

quench its thirst
on those tiny, delicate 

cactus plants you need
to cultivate by hand.



Goat

Who’d imagine you could perch 
a goat on your shoulder 

and it would be perfectly 
content? My deepest 

regret is that I gave mine
to my girlfriend, ‘cause 

ever since, she’s developed
an obsession with these

dangerously fuzzy things.
She spends all her time now 

breeding lots of little goats 
in lots of small colours.

 

Human

You will encounter it
scavenging, harvesting, 

looting, or otherwise 
running amok. It uses 

tools just like a mantis,
and you can make it carry 

small animals in its arms
or on its shoulders.

It’ll eat most things.
(Upon death, it yields

about as much meat 
as a grown coelacanth.)



Jellyfish

Don’t imbibe the bio-
toxin of this evil consort 

of the eels. Nothing 
to it but a ball of hate 

and death. (It’s 97% 
water or something.)

Escape its tunnel vision:
your grappling hook

will dredge it out.
Now kill it —  

Its electrothingy 
won’t work on land.



Leech

Light a campfire.
Leap on top of it,

into the kindled 
flame. Let it burn.

Suffer hunger, 
loss of health, 

waning stamina,
until it drops.

Draw its blood — 
a lesser antidote,

or open your home
to a very odd pet.



Mantis

Well… it really depends on what tool 
(or weapon) you equip.

Picks and hatchets… a seasoned 
harvester. Pikes and spears… 

a bitchin’ mercenary. Clubs… 
quickly subdue and tame your pets.

Shuffle a sword between its hands… 
you’ve doubled your kills. (Although… 

to reap full harvests, loan it a scythe.) 
Captively breed them 

for the delicate traits. But know: 
your males must die at mating time.



Mole Rat

Soon as it pops up with the gems,
tranquilise it. But it’ll come to,

and unlike Gollum, it’ll bite off
more than your ring finger.

So clamp it down with a crab, 
seize its stones, then toss it away.

First, let it unearth a good haul.
(20-odd of the red? 40 aquamarine?)

Gather up the scattered jewels, 
but know: it’ll hate you — forever.

Place a mousetrap. Or grab its
naked body and break its neck.



Otter

Kill it, and you’re a monster. 
(A passive non-aggressive 

attitude means it won’t flee 
or have an existential crisis.) 

Look at that face: 
its animated look 

when it gives you pearls, its 
sparkly blue eyes.

Equip furs and an otter, 
and winter mountains 

won’t kill you… 
Oh, and they’re so cute in hats!



Piranha

They’re with you in the water,
and they lock on. The moment 

your foot plunges in, you’ve got
a tractor beam right up your arse

and they zero in, swarm you, 
then proceed to tear you apart.

But they’re easy and hilarious to kill.
Dip yourself to aggro them, step in

up to your neck, then bolt to shore. 
Dozens will pop out in hot pursuit —

and die 
the second they hit the air.



Salmon

Think of it as a zombie pigman —
Don’t attack it unless you want 

to get swarmed. 
Don’t even touch it. 

Once provoked, they all latch on 
with their long sabres 

and drain your blood. 
The rim of your vision 

slowly turns white. And when 
the world goes white, you’re dead...

...
Good luck making sushi outta that.

David Jalajel is the author of Moon Ghazals (Beard of Bees Press, 2009), Cthulhu on Lesbos (Ahadada Books, 2011), a chapbook in Dan Waber’s This is Visual Poetry series (2013) and Rhyme & Refrain (University of the Western Cape, 2017). His work has appeared in a number of online and print journals, including Otoliths, Shampoo, experiential-experimental-literature, Recursive Angel, The New Post-Literate, Gulf Coast, Anti-, Lynx, Mizna, and Eclectica.

 
 

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