Not Warming

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

Not Warming

 

The climate isn’t warming

The heat in Tulsa isn’t real

And the toxic sky isn’t harming

Or affecting how we feel

 

The snowpack isn’t down

The floods aren’t getting worse

It isn’t drying out the ground

It’s not the global warming curse

 

The price of oil isn’t higher

We aren’t burning more each day

And the kids aren’t getting tired

Of nearly everything we say

 

We’re not fighting a needless war

In a place so far from here

We’re not tearing up the shore

And the end ain’t drawing near

 

We aren’t losing jobs to robots

We aren’t making people poor

And we aren’t twisted into knots

Trying to squeeze a little more

 

We aren’t living in a nightmare

We are living in a dream

And no one we know is scared

That’s just the way it seems

 

 

War Fever

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WAR

 

War Fever

 

War is like a fever

It rises and it spreads

When she speaks we believe her

In her wickedness and dread

 

From Israel to Lebanon

From Tehran to the Strait

She whispers and you’re gone

The reach of war is great

 

She tugs at all of Europe

The price of oil spreads the pain

The costs are going up and up

From the Emirates to Ukraine

 

Once you start a war it rages

Like a spiral out of sight

A scourge upon the ages

Until she saps your will to fight

 

The besieged people of Iran

They were slaughtered by their leaders

Now they’re dying from our bombs

Some were fooled by the deceivers

 

When the fever takes her toll

She will break a thousand hearts

She will pierce your very soul

She will tear your world apart

 

 

In Good Faith

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WAR

 

In Good Faith

 

When we bargain with Ukraine

We serve as Putin’s protégé

When we talk with Tehran

We’re like a puppet on a stage

 

Trump has lost his dirty war

Vladimir is off his game

Netanyahu keeps the score

Every party shares the blame

 

We do not bargain in good faith

We make demands and threats

You can’t negotiate with hate

The wars are piling up the debts

 

In the end we’ll have won nothing

But a damaged reputation

To give it credence is insulting

Time to face the implications

 

That our leader is a child

Bomb the world to have his way

The laws of reason he’s defiled

For these acts we’ll have to pay

 

 

Advice to Young Men

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CONSCRIPTION

 

Advice to Young Men *

 

It may be hard to believe

They used to send us to war

They lied and deceived

They never said what for

 

They gave us a number

They took away our names

Then we went into slumber

It all felt like a game

 

They wanted us to fight

Without question or doubt

It would all turn out right

When we figured it out

 

So they sent us off to war

To kill and sometimes die

On a far, faraway shore

And still we never asked why

 

Now here’s my sage advice

Do not answer that call

Let them ask you more than twice

Do not answer them at all

 

It goes against humanity

To send our young to die

It smells of rank insanity

When they cannot tell you why

 

* and women

 

 

America Stands Alone

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: IRAN WAR

 

America Stands Alone

 

The Middle East is on fire

The Strait of Hormuz is closed

We are balancing on a wire

Our president is loathed

 

Betrayed at every turn

Europe goes its own way

When will we ever learn?

This is the price we pay

 

Netanyahu is our only friend

The Israelis tire of his act

We all demand that this war end

Before the next attack

 

Another hundred billion dollars

To be thrown into the flames

The debt keeps growing taller

Just to glorify his name

 

The world has lost its breath

Seems his heart is made of stone

Mass destruction, pointless death

And America stands alone

 

Netanyahu's War

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WAR IN IRAN

 

Netanyahu’s War

 

A billion dollars a day in Netanyahu’s war

The man has gone insane

As he asks for billions more

It’s the Middle East refrain

You can hear the lions roar

You can feel the grief and pain

And we know what lies in store

 

You have sacrificed your cause

The way the Dubya did before you

You have trashed international laws

The economy must have bored you

Now all you had is lost

Nothing will restore you

And we will pay the cost

 

Now boots are on the ground

In a war that never ends

Until a bitter truce is found

Though the wounds will never mend

The whole world hears the sound

On oil we all depend

And the markets will go down

And down and down again

 

Nightmare in Iran

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WAR IN IRAN

 

Nightmare Scenario

 

We answered the killing of civilians

By killing hundreds more

In a contest of crude reptilians

How should we keep the score?

 

They’ve closed the Strait of Hormuz

To us and all our friends

When you “win” this war you lose

It has no foreseeable end

 

So the price of gas will rise

And economies will fall

As toxins fill the skies

So Netanyahu can stand tall

 

Our alliances are on the block

Our people feel the pain

Our enemies will not talk

Our relationships are strained

 

All because we chose a war

Without a solid plan

We still don’t know what for

We may never understand