This poem was initially conceived as a collaborative effort. My aim was to write the first stanza and final tercet of a sestina, with potentially 5 other poets adding the intervening stanzas. By writing the first verse I would define the end words of each line in the sestina. Each stanza was to reference in some small way poems or other writings, pointing to 5 different ways that humanity is going to hell in a hand-basket.

Unfortunately, when I wrote my parts, I figured this was a great deal to ask of others because the poem had ended up in anapestic tetrameter (lots of people find it difficult to write in a set meter, and many who can choose either iambic or trochaic.) To make matters worse, the second stressed (midline) syllable in the first four lines appeared as rhymes, near rhymes, and assonance rhymes, so they needed to continue So I decided I needed to do the whole thing myself. 

Some people have asked for guidance, so here are the concepts. As for the references, the statement by Eliot in The Hollow Men was "This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper." Some of the futures here will be more of a bang. I was more explicit about the references in discussion, but they are not hard to find. They are not full sentences, but words or a phrase that chime.

References:
1. Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
2. Sylvia Plath, Two Views of a Cadaver Room; Poppies in July
3. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias
4. Don McLean, Tapestry (song) 
    & Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb (book)
5. William Blake, The Book of Urizen
6. Thomas Hardy, A Wasted Illness.
7. T S Eliot, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock; The Hollow Men

S1 is a general laying out that we are in a mess, and several issues are noted. Climate change and over-profligate capitalism; Political and religious leaders that gain our support with good-sounding ideas, but then show they are empty vessels.

S2 places us in a hospital room in a war zone. As I write, this could be in Gaza or Ukraine, or any of the many zones of conflict around the world. Atrocities occur on all sides, but everyone denies responsibility.

S3 looks at those who withdraw their worlds into isolation, and claim to protect the interests of their people but find protectionism usually makes things worse. Will the world enter a global depression if we all hide behind such walls?

S4 there are the fanatics who would lead us to the "end of days" When doomsday as predicted does not arrive, either a calculation error is "found". Jonestown in the 1970s tells us where this can lead us. It's similar to S3, but religious instead of political.

S5 is linked to climate change. 2023 was the hottest year on record. Bushfire seasons are growing longer and appear to be more intense. Is there anything we can do to stop them?

In S5L3, note gall means both the bitter contents of the bladder or impudent behaviour.

S6 is the problem we face of multiple resistance to current antibiotics, etc. The next generation may be the first for a hundred years to be faced with pestilence as a reemerging significant cause of death.