Crash and Burn

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Crash and Burn

 

America is a diverse nation

Divided we have always been

Divided by race and color

Divided by religious creed

Divided by regional loyalty

Divided by philosophy

 

But we the people

Have not been divided

On the question of democracy

Since the birthing of the republic

Since the debate in Philadelphia

Since the election of 1800

Since the rejection of aristocracy

 

A question echoes like hollow voices

In the empty chambers of my mind

It rattles through the halls of congress

Shakes loose the ties that bind:

 

When will we ever learn?

Not it seems before the towers

Of power crumble crash and burn

 

What then?

A Putin-style authoritarianism?

The people have no rights in Moscow

No first or second amendment

No bill of rights

No civil liberties

No free press

No right to gather in protest

No right to free speech

No free and fair elections

They have only hope

Like America circa 1776

Voids in the Cosmic Web

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Voids in the Cosmic Web

 

Scientists mapping dark matter

In a vast but finite universe

Have discovered the existence

Of large inexplicable voids

 

Voids where there should be darkness

Darkness where there should be light

Mysteries where there should be answers

Blindness where there should be sight

 

Voids in the cosmic web

Should anyone be surprised?

Even Einstein must have known

The universe wears a disguise

 

Every time we think we know

New secrets are revealed

The one true answer at the core

Will always be concealed

 

Once again we have discovered

It is the journey not the end

When alas we’ve mapped it all

The entire universe will bend

Leonard Peltier (He's Still There)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

Leonard Peltier

 

All these years Leonard Peltier

Spent in prison

All these years the liberal intelligentsia

Promised to free him

(a promise like a million treaties broken)

He’s still there

With a cross to bear

Waiting for a day that never comes

 

Dylan sang for the Hurricane

(the man the authorities came to blame

for something he never done)

Hurricane Carter was released and

Dylan won the Nobel prize

Who sings for Peltier?

Convicted for being there

For having a name people knew

For having a defiant attitude

For being a troublesome Indian

For daring to stand up for his people

 

The FBI declared war on the sacred

bloodstained ground of Wounded Knee

They took aim at the warriors of AIM

And they paid a price in blood

But only Leonard Peltier faced

Trumped up charges and

Went to prison for forty years

 

Ain’t it time to let go?

Ain’t it time to let him breathe the air?

How much longer must he suffer

for our sins? 

 

Cities of Light

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

Cities of Light

 

Seattle

Portland

San Francisco

LA

 

Cities of light

Oases of enlightenment

Where the people live

By the code of acceptance

Where kindness is a way of life

Where the government does all it can

To ease the pain of the suffering class

Where there is help for the homeless

Food for the hungry

Where they love the arts

And embrace the artist

 

Boulder

Austin

Nashville

Miami

 

Cities of light

Cities that have overcome histories

Of shame and darkness

Where the people strive to move forward

Where they embrace the progressive ideal

Cities that work to keep the dream alive

 

How strange that cities of light

So often have an ugly underside

Bad cops and rotten politicians

Brutality and corruption

 

It is a reminder that we can never rest

Rust never sleeps *

And we must always be on guard

Ready to act

Prepared to move

Especially in cities of light

 

* Neil Young

The Ghosts of Tulsa

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: HISTORY SERIES

The Ghosts of Tulsa

 

One hundred years ago

The good white folks of Tulsa Oklahoma

Armed with rifles and handguns

Gasoline and flame

Marched on the Greenwood District

Where the black folks lived and prospered

 

After two days of rampage and murder

Hundreds lay dead and thousands injured

The district dissolved in charred remains

The headline in the local paper read:

Two Whites Dead in Race Riot

 

The once booming businesses of

Greenwood no longer existed

The people had no choice but to leave

Nothing remained but fear and terror

To be buried in the deep dark hollows

Of their collective psyche

And the knowledge that this could

Happen to people with darker skin

Anywhere in the land of the free

 

The survivors moved away

But the spirits of the dead still

Roam those bloodstained streets

Still scream in horror

Still call out to loved ones

Buried in the smoldering rubble

 

How is it possible for anyone

To live and work and pray on these

Hallowed grounds of shame?

 

How can people sleep with the cries

Of women and children still

Ringing in the air?

 

Some crimes cannot be forgotten

Some towns can never atone

Some reparations will never be enough

 

Sand Creek

Wounded Knee

The Tulsa Massacre

 

Memorial Day

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POLITICS & LIFE

 

Memorial

 

We bear witness at the nation’s burial ground

Row upon row of sacred white markers

Tributes to the fallen of war

 

For many years we remember them

We salute their courage

We mourn their solemn sacrifice

 

They fought in the nation’s wars

Many had no choice

The nation called and they answered

As their fathers and grandfathers did

As their ancestors did

As they were supposed to do

As they were trained to do

 

Theirs was to do or die

Not to ask why

 

Then came Vietnam and we did ask why

We stood and marched in protest

We refused to serve

We burned our draft cards

We demanded an end to unjust war

 

Still we salute and pray

For those who served and fell

We remember their faces as long

As our memories allow

We remember their names

We tell their stories

And we fall silent

 

We fall silent and wonder

If only to ourselves

What might have been

Had they not been called to war