Summer Winds

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

Summer Winds

 

The summer winds blow hot this year

Sparking dry brush into flame

The people run or hide in fear

On the outskirts of Marseille

 

For this the French are well prepared

They halted trains and planes

Though the fire spread and flared

It was tempered in the main

 

Wildfires strike across the globe

The floods and monster storms

Catastrophes will come in droves

As the planet has grown warm

 

It’s far too late to stem the tide

Disasters will come hard and fast

Destruction will be far and wide

The damage done will last

 

Tell your leaders everywhere

In every town and nation

The time is now to get prepared

For the great acceleration

 

 

We Will Get By

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: DEMOCRACY

 

We Will Get By

 

You have to believe we will get by

You have to believe

That democracy will prevail

When all is said …

The autocrats, the dictators, the wannabes,

The hustlers, the con men, the promise

You everything wise guys...

They’re all lies

You have to believe the people

Will see through them

 

The trouble is there are so many of them

They come in all forms and colors

They wear fancy clothes and wry grins

They drive Tesla’s and Cadillac Seville’s

They bring you sparkling gifts

But their gold is pyrite

Their magic is a conjuring spell

Their promise is an empty shell

 

There is only one truth

She is not fancy

She has no bells and whistles

She is not the belle of the ball

But she is steady and persistent

She is the stronger tenfold

And democracy is her friend

And democracy we’ll defend

 

We will get by

 

(re: Grateful Dead’s A Touch of Grey)

 

BRICS in the Wall

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

BRICS in the Wall

 

Lula took aim at the US of A

The Saudis looked on silently

The Iranians had much to say

The Emirates could hardly breathe

 

They all blasted the Israelis

As they were right to do

The Palestinians are on their knees

With no one left to sue

 

But when you blast the warmongers

Yet fall silent on Ukraine

You should hold your tongues longer

Before singing that refrain

 

The Russians have no virtue

The Chinese little more

Give credit wherever it is due

Give none to the masters of war

 

Stand up for all democracies

Oppose the bold oppressors

Call out all those hypocrisies

As something less than lesser

 

 

 

Adaptability

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

Adaptability

 

Humans are nothing if not adaptable

We thrive under harsh conditions

We survive the near impossible

We convert our suppositions

 

Though we’ve no intent to harm her

The earth is growing warmer

While the summer’s getting longer

We adapt by getting stronger

 

When we cannot breathe the air

We’ll filter it through masks

If a curious child should ask

We’ll pretend we do not care

 

When the storms become a beast

That rails from west to east

We’ll seek shelter beneath the ground

Where there are no sights or sounds

 

We’ll adapt to almost anything

But someday they’ll wonder why

We refused to stop the poisoning

Of the water and the sky

 

We’ll say we did not understand

Knowing fully well we did

We thought we’d find a better land

So we took the highest bid

Camp Mystic (Texas Flood)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

Camp Mystic

 

On the banks of the Guadalupe

They camped for a hundred years

Now the camp is under water

Swollen with a flood of tears

 

The girls of the Christian summer camp

Were fast asleep that night

Some were playing by the light of a lamp

When a storm came into sight

 

They did not know the depth of it

The river rose so hard and fast

They could not know the breadth of it

It hit them with a blast

 

It swept away their summer fun

It stole away their innocence

The days of carefree youth are done

It never will make sense

 

The camp will never be the same

A place of boundless sorrow

A tragedy will be its name

Each day beyond tomorrow

 

(At last count, 27 girls were missing

from Camp Mystic in Texas.)

 

The Fourth

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN HISTORY

 

The Fourth

 

Two and a half centuries ago

We declared our independence

Mad King George felt the blow

And sang a long lament

 

No longer would we serve

A master far away

We took what we deserved

Our Independence Day

 

Our founders were the best

In mind, heart and soul

Old Ben Franklin and the rest

They kept the union whole

 

We thank them to this day

Though their faults are very clear

Their light would shine the way

Through many troubled years

 

This day we remember them

And the nation they envisioned

A circle of enlightened men

Who made a hard decision

 

They created a democracy

The first in the modern age

They defeated an autocracy

And sparked a monarch’s rage

 

Today the kings are figureheads

The queens do not hold sway

We’ve followed where the founders led

It’s Independence Day

 

(Happy Fourth of July!!!)

 

Heat Wave in Europe

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

Heat Wave

 

All of Europe is on fire

From Madrid to Istanbul

The temperature is higher

No matter where you go

 

Everywhere the warming

Is driving through the air

Everywhere the harming

Is much too much to bear

 

The children are surviving

The heat is bearing down

Relief is not arriving

The waves are all around

 

You want to run for shelter

But shelter’s hard to find

A dash through helter skelter

An unforgiving bind

 

We all become believers

When children start to die

We’ll curse the rank deceivers

Who let us live the lie

 

The warming is upon us

The time has come to pass

Recall the ones who conned us

The flags will fly half mast