The Lord and the Virus

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  CORONAVIRUS SERIES

The Lord and the Virus

The Great Plague

The Black Death

The Spanish Influenza

The religious have always claimed

The lord would protect the righteous

They were wrong

They have always been

A virus does not examine

The spiritual status of a body

A virus has no regard

For religious fervor or piety

A virus does not distinguish

Between Christian or atheist

Between Muslim or Jew

A virus does not determine

Who is spiritually true

A virus thrives on human tissue

Any body will do

(Two thirds of a religious gathering

in Eastern Oregon tested positive

for the Coronavirus)

Family Circle

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Family Circle

Doing the right thing

Staying at home

Keeping our distance

Not taking chances

Staying safe the way we should

But I wonder now and then

How everyone is doing

Not in the abstract

Not on the phone

Not on social media

But up close and personal

My folks left some time ago

Never had to face this test

But the rest of us are near

Still living around here

My brothers and sisters

Nephews and nieces

Love them all to pieces

Babies being born

Some folks moving on

Kids growing up

Living lives without us

I miss the family circle

I miss looking them in the eye

Each and every one

Hearing what they have to say

Seeing what they really mean

I miss their tender love and caring

Moments that we shared

I miss the lazy days we spent

Shooting the evening breeze

Singing songs and telling stories

I know those days will come again

At least I hope they will

And we will cherish them all the more

For the gaping hole they fill

(for Ethan on his birthday)

Lynch's Irish Pub (Fifteen Ladies)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Lynch’s Irish Pub

Fifteen ladies went to celebrate

A night at the pub

A memorable date

A night to remember

As cold as fate

Fifteen ladies all sick today

No masks did they wear

Needless to say

The virus did not care

Now the Irish Pub is gone

They had to close it down

Because ladies should not die

For a night out on the town

The ladies didn’t die you say

They got sick and some recovered

But each went home to someone

And they infected one another

The truth is we’ll never know

How many lives were lost

We know it was not worth it

No matter what the cost

Hold the Line

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GEORGE FLOYD SERIES

Hold the Line

We’ve been pushing so long

Our bones are starting to push back

Decades of resistance

Centuries of struggle

Truth be told

Millennia of pressure

On our worried minds

Hold the line

So tired my eyes close by themselves

My back aches my legs pulsate

My brain screams at the endless plight

Every step reminds me

Of the struggle ahead

And the struggle behind

Hold the line

Work until your fingers bleed

Talk until you fold

March until the sun rises

Watch until you’re blind

Hold the line

Nothing worth achieving

Was ever accomplished with less

Than everything you’ve got

This is our time

Hold the line

No matter how many times

They beat us down

And trample us

No matter how times

They batter us

No matter how many times

They take our money our homes

Our peace of mind

Hold the line

We will prevail

We will take what is rightly ours

We will right forever wrongs

We will stand our ground

We will not fall behind

Hold the line

For all who came before us

And all who will follow

For our children

For posterity

For all that we hold dear

For peace and prosperity

For justice and equality

For the good and the kind

Hold the line

Mount Rushmore

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  GEORGE FLOYD SERIES

Rushmore

 

While we’re taking down statues

Of confederate heroes

Consider the abomination carved

Into the sacred mountains

Of North Dakota

 

Think of them what you will

Slaveholders or emancipators

Conservationists or buffalo killers

Racists or liberators

The great white fathers

Do not belong in the Black Hills

Sacred ground to the Lakota nation

 

Crazy Horse belongs in the Black Hills *

Sitting Bull belongs in the Black Hills

Black Elk belongs in the Black Hills

Big Foot belongs in the Black Hills

 

Take down the defenders of slavery

Deglorify the traders of slaves

Break down the great white commanders

In the home of the free and the brave

 

Replace the symbols of white supremacy

With the defenders of equality

Replace the champions of treason

With the proud guardians of reason

 

We are what we deify

We are what our books embrace

When our history teaches lies

Our entire nation is disgraced

 

* (Crazy Horse Monument is just down

the road from Mount Rushmore; its

inscription reads: “My land is where

my people lie buried.”)

To Mask or Not to Mask

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

To Mask or Not to Mask

To mask or not to mask

That is the question

Whether it is nobler to display loyalty

To the man in power

Or enhance survival of the species

To mask yet ask no questions

Demand no answers

To let the virus work its darkness

Or stand in opposition

And by resisting perchance to stop him

Ah there’s the rub

What further damage might

Our species do if allowed

To spread and thrive?

The species or the planet?

Will not destruction of the former

Spare the latter?

I shall despair

Paralyzed in procrastination

Frozen with indecisiveness

I wait and wait again:

To mask or not to mask

That is the question

The Real World

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  CORONAVIRUS SERIES

The Real World

We leave behind our virtuality

Just as we all prayed

We must wonder where we stand

In the brutal light of day

We have made a great investment

In the realm beyond our view

Must we question all our musings now

What is false and what is true?

We have formed new attachments

And we must wonder if they will hold

Have we made too many commitments?

Were we restrained or were we bold?

The real world awaits us

It never really went away

We lower expectations

And hope the world will stay