The Bridge

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

 

The Bridge

 

You’re young and healthy

(at least you think you are)

If you believe you can jump off a bridge

Without harm to yourself or others

I’m fine with that

Live free or die

Do what you will

Go your own way

Dance to your own music

 

But don’t go berserk

If I won’t do the same

Your freedom does not include

The right to bully me

Your rights do not trump mine

 

I must admit the fact that you endanger

Others with your recklessness

Bothers me

 

It drills into my consciousness

And triggers my rejection

 

Do unto others is my creed

(I thought it was yours)

I thought we were all in this together

Until we weren’t

 

So go ahead

Jump off that bridge

Just don’t take anyone with you

 

Accumulation

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

Accumulation

 

We are all that we have ever been

We are every moment of doubt

We are every breath of affirmation

We are what we are without

We are the love our mother gave us

We are the strength our father drove

We are an explosion of anger

We are the spirit of resolve

We are that awkward haircut in the seventh grade

We are the underdog who overcame

We are the hand that helped a stranger

We are the times we turned away

We are the music and the dance

We are the stumble and the fall

We are everything we ever thought

We are everything we ever saw

We are everything we ever felt

And everything we ever dreamed

We are fantasies of pure illusion

And everything they seem

We are that for which we are not proud

And that we should not have said out loud

We are everything we have ever done

We are joyful laughter and endless fun

We are the thoughts we take to bed

We are all that rambles through our heads

We are everything we’ve thrown away

We are the place we chose to stay

 

We are an accumulation of all things

Within our sphere of understanding

And beyond

The Royal Bloodline

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

 

The Royal Bloodline

 

The royal family has decreed

The royal bloodline must be pure

Should any prince plant a seed

Immediate expulsion is the cure

 

The royal house of Windsor

Goes back a thousand years

The queen upholds tradition

And commoners hold her dear

 

The darker side of aristocracy

Is race discrimination

The goal of every royal wedding

Is genetic purification

 

The royal family through the ages

Is white as purest snow

Is all the pageantry necessary?

The answer: clearly no

 

Relief

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

 

Relief

 

Sigh breathe take it in let it go

Like shelter from a winter storm

Like fire in a world of snow

At last relief is on the way

To soften hardship’s blow

 

A billion words in Washington

Without a word of common sense

Without a sign of understanding

Without a hint of recompense

 

But in the end the ones

Who have no needs

Gave in to those who do

In the end their willful ignorance

Gave in to what is plainly true

 

The ones who lost their livelihoods

The ones who cannot pay the rent

The ones who live from day to day

The ones whose hope is all but spent

 

Spend an hour in their heads

Know their worries and their fears

No longer would you play your games

If you could feel behind their tears

 

The Pope in Baghdad

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

The Pope in Baghdad

 

Remember when Iraq was everyday news

Every day a new battle

Every day another casualty

Every day another atrocity

Every day a new horror to endure

 

Now we hardly ever think of Iraq

The nation we destroyed for being there

The nation we designated evil

And decided to possess as tribute

To the never-ending war on terror

 

Now the Pope goes to Baghdad

In a gesture of good will

And I wonder what the Iraqis think

Do they greet him as we would greet

A most holy imam or ayatollah?

Do they hold him responsible for what

The western world has done?

 

This Pope is a holy man

This Pope brings a message of peace

This Pope believes in tolerance

But I wonder I would think

What I would say or do

If I were in Iraqi shoes