The Lotus

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

The Lotus

 

The beauty of the lotus flower

Lifts our spirits in the darkest hour

Calms our frayed and fragile nerves

Makes the burden of our mind less

 

In times of tragedy and death

We seek levity and jest

To lift us from our jaded view

That bears no joy or kindness

 

We turn back to the lotus

As it finds a way to float us

On the deep deep pool of sorrow

To which time and trouble bind us

 

There is beauty in the world as yet

And if we ever should forget

Just take another look around

The lotus will remind us

 

Climate Chaos

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate Chaos

 

A clash of titans over the Rockies

A scourge from the western fires

A blast of cold from the northeast

Predictions are most dire

 

Wildfires in the arctic circle

Thunderstorms and drought

Hurricanes in the Atlantic

Typhoons leave no doubt  

 

The story of climate change unfolds

The pages of disaster turn

Written on the walls of prophecy

Lessons never learned

Recorded on the streets of protest

While our towns and forests burned

 

The deniers become the naysayers

Do nothing let it burn

It’s far too late to change the course

So let the pages turn

 

It almost makes sense

Until you tell it to a child

Who wonders if you’ve lost your mind

While the fires yet burn wild

 

The Magic Pill

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  2020 ELECTION

The Magic Pill                                                                                   

 

Nixon offered a secret plan

To end the carnage in Vietnam

 

Bush swore our taxes would be cut

He promised us no matter what

 

Politicians tell you what you want to hear

They play to your bias hatred and fear

  

So now the president has a magic pill

Just take it with water and sit real still

 

When the election is over if it goes his way

He’ll swear what he said he did not say

 

The lesson is clear if you have any sense

What a politician says is not what he meant

 

Prayers for India

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Prayers for India

 

Prayers for India

Prayers for Delhi

The predator has found

A most fertile hunting ground

Poverty squalor overcrowding

It is not religion

It is not faith

It is not the will of god

It is science and mathematics

It is numbers and space

Too many people

Too few hospitals

Too little care

A draconian lockdown

Punished the poor

Without relief

Without preparation

To fight an airborne enemy

That has no politics

That has no pride or prejudice

And the people of India suffer

And perish as they do

In Rio de Janeiro and the barrios

Wherever poverty overcrowding

and superstition prevail

Bollywood is closed

The curtain has lowered

The beautiful people

In their colorful costumes

Sing and dance no more

 

Oppression

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GEORGE FLOYD SERIES

Oppression                                                                                                     

 

Oppression is not a flash of lightning

The heavy hammer of abuse

It is not the swift slice of a sharp blade

Or the sting of pounding blow

 

Oppression is a dull throbbing ache

Always present never fading

Always building like waves of heat

 

Oppression never reaches its crescendo

With the end of day or the fall of night

 

Oppression is a constant haunting

Like the shadow of a thousand miseries

In a hospice or a funeral home

 

It is a pall that never lifts

A pain that has no remedy

A ghost in living flesh

 

To live with oppression

Is to be imprisoned without bars

In agony without relief

In perpetual apprehension

Of the days and nights ahead

 

Oppression in its purest sense

Is to be oppressor and oppressed

In an endless cycle of horror

Return to Kind

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

Return to Kind

 

Somewhere on the blue highways

Of my mind

I remember hearing this fertile valley

Was once a barren desert

 

All things return to kind

What once was will be again

The dam will give way

The river will run its course

The forest will reclaim the cities

The irrigated desert will return to sand

And we poor humans will return

Kicking and screaming like banshees

On a moonlit night

To our more natural lives

 

Our towers will topple

Civilizations decline

Earth will reclaim her majesty

In the richness of time

 

Bravado

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Bravado

 

We are all subject to the laws of physics

We cannot opt out

We cannot object on moral grounds

The sun will rise

The moon will follow

Young folks reach for the sky

Old folks like fallen fruit must die

Don’t ask why

Don’t ask why

 

You can curse the stars for shining

You can purge what rests within

You can dwell in sorrow’s garden

You can argue with the wind

 

A single truth survives the ages

Upon this you can depend

The greatest lesson in this life

Comes at its very end

 

It’s the moment when you realize

A mere flash before the fall

Your courage in the face of death

Wasn’t bravery at all