Angry White Men

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: VIOLENCE

 

Angry White Men

 

Angry white men rule the world

It’s something we all know

Like boys will follow pretty girls

They let their anger show

 

An angry white man, another killing

A sense of self-aggrandizement

Mass murder considered thrilling

The cult of disenfranchisement

 

I wonder what the world would be

Without these crazy white men

Who think: this world belongs to me

Their anger is their only friend

 

They live inside a world of rage

They can never understand

They aren’t the center of the stage

Or the leader of the band

 

They live their lives in silence

Until the bubble bursts

An explosion of crude violence

The angry white man curse

 

All because they don’t belong

They’ve learned to hate themselves

Everyone they know is wrong

So they send them all to hell

 

(re: The Palm Springs bombing.)

 

The Core of Violence

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: VIOLENCE

 

The Core of Violence

 

The core of violence is hatred

Hatred of self and others

It is not inherited but bred

A resentment of our brothers

 

How do we learn to hate?

It rises from deep inside

We are taught an intolerant state

From which we cannot hide

 

We learn to hate ourselves

When we’re taught to hate the other

We would rather go to hell

Than have love for one another

 

From this most violence springs

That hatred of the self

It spreads on hatred’s wings

It rings the vengeance bell

 

If we wish to curb the violence

We must learn to love ourselves

We can’t sit still in silence

While we’re captured in its spell

 

The American Crisis

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CANADA

 

The American Crisis

 

Mark Carney* and the Canadian nation

Have arrived at a critical crossroad

Like a runaway train approaching as station

They are asked to carry a heavy load

 

He must deal with the brute at the border

Who has neither a heart nor ears

Who isn’t concerned with the mass disorder

Caused by the ship that he steers

 

More than two hundred years of alliance

Shattered in the quick of an hour

Our friendship and trade were reliant

Now they’ve turned rotten and sour

 

They must find a way to appease him

Without becoming his pet

Any moment the wrath could seize him

And send us all into massive debt

 

Oh how I wish we could turn back time

To a place where we all got along

When the northern winds were calm and sublime

But that was only a dream in a song

 

* Canada’s new Prime Minister

 

Around the World

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Around the World

 

The war in Gaza rages

The war in Yemen holds

The wars progress in stages

The Ukrainians will not fold

 

The tariff wars intensify

Across the global stage

Our leaders taking foreign bribes

The Saudis are in play

 

Everywhere we plant a seed

The future is in doubt

Autocracies grow like weeds

Democracy is out

 

The war is raging everywhere

Our rights are on the run

Those in power do not care

The reckoning has begun

 

The warming is the greatest threat

To all that live on earth

We’ve just begun to pay the debt

How much is the planet worth?

 

The Bust

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: MUSK

 

The Bust

 

The man who bought the president

Who won the people’s trust

Who became a White House resident

Has gone from boom to bust

 

He wishes he had never worn

That silly MAGA hat

He’ll curse the day the thought was born

How could he think of that?

 

He was the richest man on earth

He wears that title still

He lost so much of what he’s worth

He’ll take the bitter pill

 

Tesla was his golden baby

It never could go wrong

Will it recover? Who knows? Maybe

Its forecast is less than strong

 

It’s time for fortune’s star to fade

On the man who had a vision

Despite the fortune that he made

It all ended in derision

 

The Occupation

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GAZA

 

The Occupation

 

They are starving in Gaza

The children eat birdseed

The siege is in place

A blockade of all needs

 

The Israeli Occupation

Has captured the Strip

A complete subjugation

The crack of a whip

 

We pretend it’s not real

The world turns away

A spin of the wheel

There’s no more to say

 

But if you’re living in Gaza

You have no choice

The bombs keep on falling

Drowning out your voice

 

Will no one bear witness

To the crimes of this war?

We’ve turned out the lights

We’ve bolted the door

 

The Day Saigon Fell

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

The Day Saigon Fell

 

The day that Saigon fell *

Ended fifty years of hell **

Fifty years since that day

We’ve learned there’s a price to pay

 

For fighting endless wars

That wound us to our core

Wars in other people’s lands

Iraq and Afghanistan

 

Wars that leave a lasting stain

Yemen and Ukraine

I wonder if we’ve learned at all

Fifty years since the fall

 

We’ve pledged to end all war

We’ve sworn to fight no more

But then the bugle sounds

And another war goes down

 

Soldiers by the thousands die

As mothers wonder why

Their children are deceased

When will we live in peace?

 

* April 28, 1975

** British, French and American wars