Intentional Negligence

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Intentional Negligence

 

To all who lost loved ones to Covid-19

Does it help to know their intentions

To infect the young and healthy

To encourage the viral spread

To achieve herd immunity

To secure a second term?

 

Does it help to know they didn’t mean

To kill the vulnerable and elderly?

Does it help to know they didn’t care?

 

Whether intentional or folly

They did their best to spread it around

To infect as many as they could

To keep the markets thriving

Until Election Day

 

After that who knows?

It no longer mattered

It was all about the man on top

The man in the golden mirror

The man with a deep psychological need

To best the best and stay in power

The man of every hour

No matter how many died

 

From Moscow with Love

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

From Moscow with Love

 

You poisoned Navalny

We tracked the killer down

You hacked our institutions

We spread the word around

You delivered a puppet president

Whom you ruled from up above

Now you bid us a fond farewell

From Moscow with love

 

You have many of our secrets

And access to the rest

Someday when it matters

You’ll deliver us a test

How much will we offer

When push comes to shove

Chechnya and Ukraine?

From Moscow with love

 

 

Without Fear

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Without Fear

 

Should I walk through this life

Without fear without worry

Should I walk a long road

Never doubt never hurry

 

In these trying times I’ve learned

Without fear I would not survive

Without a healthy dose of doubt

I would likely not be alive

 

Fear leads me away from danger

Doubt keeps me safe at home

It is a time that values caution

It is not a time to roam

 

So let the singer praise the valiant

Who bravely cast their lives away

I will praise the cautious ones

Who bravely choose to stay

 

The Execution of Ruhollah Zam

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL JUSTICE

The Execution of Ruhollah Zam

 

The execution of Ruhollah Zam

Lands a death blow to Iran

In its hopes to restore relations

Between Tehran and western nations

 

Whatever hopes we might have had

Have gone to worse from bad

Iran must walk a lonely road

For violating a moral code

 

Journalists thou shall not kill

For if you do good nations will

Abandon you on every path

Gifting you our righteous wrath

 

We must assure a price to pay

To advance there is no other way

If you defy most basic rights

We must oppose you in this fight

 

Corona Christmas

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Corona Christmas

 

When I was young and brave

I dreamed of being a troubadour

A writer of dreams

A man of letters

A poet and master creator

A man of substance and means

 

I rode that dream to faraway lands

Where art and artists reigned

Where everything was novel

Where everyone had character

Where no one had plans

Beyond tomorrow

 

I remember Christmas

Far from my home

No family no friends

On Christmas alone

 

The dream slowly faded

Like the end of a story

I grabbed my moment

and then it was gone

I awakened surrounded

by family and friends

But I wonder at times

When did the dream end?

 

I remember Christmas

So far from my home

No friends no family

On Christmas alone

 

Now I’m back in a dream

Locked down in my home

No family no friends

On Christmas alone

 

(NYC circa 1975)

 

The Silence (A Long Dark Winter)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

The Silence

 

A Sunday walk in the park

Fallen leaves adorn the earth

A mere whisper of wind

Accentuates the void

The absence of sound

A muffling of noise

 

The last geese have gone

Predators are in hiding

A distant drone of transport

More distant and subdued

And the workers who once toiled

Without rest or respite

Now sit in their quiet homes

Together and alone

 

The world is on sabbatical

The sound of labor is on hold

No sounds of celebration

No children playing 

No singers or musicians 

No dancers dancing

To raise our sullen spirits

No chatter of sidewalk cafes

No sudden bursts to amaze

 

The joy and sorrow of silence

Has invaded our daily lives

To soothe our senses

To send our thoughts in flight

As if to prepare us

For a long dark winter

Night