The Fall of Paraguay

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LATIN AMERICA

 

The Fall of Paraguay

 

Presidente Santiago Pena

Has fallen far from grace

His party and his nation

Abandoned in disgrace

 

Another Trump alliance

Struck down by mass corruption

People rise up in defiance

And threaten an eruption

 

He fell in love with power

No matter what it cost

His favors only soured

When his crooked funds were lost

 

His bank was a paradise

For grifters and for fraud

Santiago paid the price

When the bottom line was odd

 

Now he will go to jail

Like so many have before

His ship at last has sailed

Into Paraguayan lore

 

There’s a lesson for us all

If we’re willing to embrace it

The corrupt will always fall

All leaders one day face it

 

The Dawning

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICA

 

The Dawning

 

A thousand years of rage

Sorrow guilt and accusation

Vanished in the dawning age

The birth of a new nation

 

And we are like our country

We were founded on ideals

A dream we could not reach

And how it made us feel

 

A burden lifted from our shoulders

We no longer need to fight

We have found as we grow older

We can keep the dream in sight

 

All this in one election

That must now be sustained

No backsteps and no defections

It cannot have been in vain

 

For the dawning is a blessing

To all who gave their vow

Who learned that long hard lesson

The time for change is now

 

Let freedom ring across the land

Let there be a celebration

Strike up those famous marching bands

For the dawning of our nation

 

Hottest Year (Again)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

Hottest Year (Again)

 

It is the hottest year on record

Not a record we desire

It is one we can’t afford

The droughts, the storms, the fires

 

Are we beginning to take note

Or do we place it in the file

Of the things we never wrote

Are we going out in style?

 

Another year of the great warming

Or pretending it’s not here

Of grifting and of warring

Another ship we didn’t steer

 

It is an existential question

That’s something we should know

We have failed to make connections

While the crisis only grows

 

I know it’s hard to pay attention

When it isn’t on your table

I know we’re hoping for inventions

That will make the climate stable

 

If we’re banking on the latter

We should place a bet on science

We should raise a cry that shatters

But all we hear is silence

 

Please say it isn’t so

That we care about the earth

Tell me something I don’t know

For whatever it is worth

 

Madman in Krakow

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: MASS SHOOTINGS

 

Madman in Krakow

 

A madman in Krakow

Who found home in the extreme

A shot off the bow

To fulfill a warped dream

 

How many must die

Before we awaken?

That dream is a lie

That has been forsaken

 

Like a man on a mission

He shot to kill

To whom he would listen

He hadn’t the will

 

It seems no one is safe

From the scourge of all nations

We are frozen in place

We can find no salvation

 

A killer will kill

A liar will lie

We cannot hold still

While our people die

 

Is there no solution

To this outbreak of violence?

Propaganda pollution

Breaks through our silence

 

Take away the guns

Teach your children to love

Beneath the rays of the sun

Seek help from above

 

 

Commutation (Death Penalty)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

 

Commutation

 

California ended the death sentence

In an act of commutation

While it falls short of full repentance

California leads the nation

 

A government should not kill

As a punishment for crime

It goes against our higher will

It belongs to long lost times

 

When once we needed vengeance

To fulfill our sense of justice

That thought was always bent

When we governed with a fist

 

We know it does not deter

The ones who wish to kill

Though the passions it may stir

Just might provide a thrill

 

There once were executions

Performed like passion plays

They were thought to be solutions

But we don’t think that today

 

We have no other interest

But to protect and to serve

This is not the Wild West

Where they got what they deserved

 

We are better than we were

More civil and humane

We should honor the higher word

Not bear the mark of Cain

 

(Governor Newsom commutes

sentences of prisoners on death row.)

 

Desperate Times

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Desperate Times

 

Desperate times in France

And across the European states

The French have made their stance

We will now await their fate

 

Desperate times in Israel

They may lose American aid

The threat is growing real

They are in the mess they made

 

Desperate times in Ukraine

The Putin-Trump alliance

Support begins to wane

As well as our reliance

 

Desperate times in Iran

Trump may blow a fuse

Until he’s finally gone

We don’t know what he’ll do

 

Desperate times in the Kremlin

Their chief ally took a hit

They are overrun with gremlins

They are falling down a pit

 

Desperate times in the Arab states

They cannot control the oil

They are tied up in the Straits

Taking missiles on their soil

 

Desperate times in the world

The markets are unstable

Trade deals come unfurled

The powers are disabled

 

When the system starts to crumble

Every nation is engaged

All economies will stumble

And the people grow enraged

 

We need to find a common ground

To buffer our economies

Rethink the factors that unwound

Heal the earth’s disease

 

A New Dawn

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICA

 

A New Dawn

 

A wave of optimism

Has swept across the land

We have closed the great schism

That was created by one man

 

It’s a new dawn

It’s a new day

The morning finally comes

It’s a new song

It’s a new way

Wave the flag and bang the drum

 

The way of war and terror

Is fading into black

The greed and vengeful era

Let’s hope it’s never coming back

 

It’s a new dawn

It’s a new day

The age of the grift is gone

It was so wrong

Now it’s pay day

It’s the end of the reign of Don

 

The nation’s nightmare ends

The dream has just begun

We’ve overcome ourselves again

The side of right has won