Surrounded by Sycophants

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP DAZE

 

Surrounded by Sycophants

 

You surround yourself with sycophants

And wonder how it went wrong

No one who dares to say you can’t

They all sing the same old song

 

Don’t you wish you had your father

To tell you what to do?

No sycophants will bother

To set it straight but it’s true

 

Every day you tell yourself

You are doing what is right

And every day they bathe you

In the glory of false light

 

But deep within the truth reveals

A frightened little man

Who thinks his very word can heal

But he fails to understand

 

When you’re surrounded by sycophants

You will never hear the truth

You may think you’re Honest Abe

But you’re really John Wilkes Booth

 

Dear Citizens (of the World)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Dear Citizens (An Apology)

 

Dear citizens of Ukraine

We’re sorry about our president

All out efforts were in vain

To change the message that he sent

He doesn’t care about your nation

We tell you this in confidence

He only wants your resources

What he said is what he meant

 

Dear citizens of Canada

We’re so sorry about our leader

He’s a man who has no principles

He’s a winter without a heater

When he threatens to annex you

He does not speak for us

We’ll do our best to stop him

In him we do not trust

 

Dear citizens of Greenland

We’re sorry about his threats

We should have known beforehand

We’re forever in your debt

We know that land is your land

There is no tete-a-tete

If you like the Danish brand

The map has long been set

 

Dear citizens of the free world

All around this twirling sphere

He has no love for freedom

It is power he holds dear

We are sorry for his ignorance

He would like to reign in fear

We’ll stand with the resistance

When the tipping point draws near

The Secret State

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

 

The Secret State

 

You put him in power

To get rid of the fat

The useless abusers

Not the harmless bureaucrats

They said they would rid you

Of the secret, deep state

The unelected elites

That control the nation’s fate

 

Now look who’s in charge

Every minute and hour

They’ve taken up residence

In the executive tower

They make the decisions

They pull all the strings

They sound the alarms

Just to see if they ring

We had no deep state

But now that we do

They’ll tear down democracy

The joke is on you

 

Social Security?

Medicare and Medicaid?

Just wait til you see

The plans that they’ve laid

Environmental protection?

Who cares about that?

Get rid of it all

They’ll just call it fat

Educating the poor?

The ones who can’t pay

Throw it out with the trash

And call it a day

Freedom of speech?

The right to exist?

They’ll answer to that

With a hammer and fist

 

Is this what you wanted?

Nobody cares

In the politics of war

Everything’s fair

 

Stand your Ground

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

Stand your Ground

 

There are times to compromise

There are times to stand your ground

When all you hear are lies

To honor you are bound

 

Your principles should never bend

Or bow to greater force

While broken fences we should mend

Remember: stay the course

 

A compromise will never do

When it wounds your very soul

To yourself you must be true

You’ll find no other role

 

So suffer through the consequence

If that is what’s required

For that is what the wise one meant

Do not put out the fire

 

For we are what we stand for

Be it bad or be it good

We’ll open up or bar the door

According to what we should

 

Killing Children in Gaza

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GAZA

 

Killing Children in Gaza

 

Omar will never grow old

Omar will never go to school

He will never find a girl

He will never be married

He will never have a job

He will never have a child

He will never cross a border

Not even his own

 

Omar was a child in Gaza

That was his only crime

To live as a child in Gaza

Is to die without warning

A missile drops from the sky

Falls where Omar lay sleeping

 

Omar was not a soldier

He was not a foreign terrorist

He was not a criminal

He was not a threat to Israel

He was not a hateful being

He was a child

 

He was a child who is no more.

 

Democracy in Turkey

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL DEMOCRACY

 

Erdogan’s Betrayal

 

As if to prove his power

As if to prove his infallibility

As if to test the limits of his lawlessness

Erdogan ordered the detention

Of his rival before the next election

The mayor of Istanbul

An enemy of state

 

The mayor of Istanbul is not

An enemy of state

He is an enemy of Erdogan

He is an enemy of the dictator

He is a friend to democracy

He is a victim of oppression

He is a candidate for change

 

His name is Ekram Imamoglu

He is the reason for massive protest

In open defiance of Erdogan’s law

You can take away their rights

You can take away their freedom

But you cannot take their voices

You can beat them down

You can push them back

But they will rise again

No Peace in Gaza

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GAZA

 

No Peace in Gaza

 

The war in Gaza continues

There’s no peace in the Middle East

Not as long as he reigns in Israel

The genocidal beast

 

He will not cease destruction

He will level it to the earth

He will do all that he can and more

To prevent a nation’s birth

 

The hostages are no longer

He has tossed their lives away

Animosity is growing stronger

All of Palestine is in flames

 

Hope is a rare and dying species

In the land of the Middle East

The warlords rule with missiles now

The peacemakers are deceased

 

There is no peace in Gaza

For as long as the goal remains

Annihilation of land and people

Their intentions are very plain