Fire & Floods

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

 

Fire & Floods

 

Rain floods the east coast

From Philly to Manhattan

Get out of the way if you’re able

Find shelter if you can

 

Fires rage in California

Pristine Lake Tahoe in the path

Testing our perseverance

Challenging nature’s wrath

 

Punishing heat pounds New Orleans

In the wake of a hurricane

The people survive without power

Though their will to live wanes

 

The days of reckoning are upon us

It arrives in seven waves

Fire wind rain and pestilence

All combine to induce rage

 

We can walk in place no longer

It is time to raise the roof

No longer can we be passive

We can no longer be aloof

 

If this is the final hour

If these are the final days

Let it be said I was impassioned

Let it be said my part I played

 

The Ganges (River Series)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RIVER SERIES

The Ganges

 

The Ganges is a sacred river

To millions of Hindu followers

The embodiment of a goddess

They bathe in its sacred waters

 

They bury their dead in the Ganges

They dispose their sewage and waste

After centuries of endless pollution

The Ganges is a hopeless case

 

It was meant to purify humans

So the Hindu legends tell

But humans poisoned the Ganges

Turning heaven into earthly hell

 

Let us pray it is not too late

To turn the Ganges around

To cleanse the sacred waters

And reclaim a hallowed ground

 

Military Madness

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AFGHAN WAR

Military Madness

 

Three presidents elected on a promise

To leave behind the mess in Afghanistan

The military managed to ignore two

The third took a hard stand:

Get out of Afghanistan!

 

So now they take turns in a public lament:

We betrayed our allies and friends

Said what we said meant what we meant

America fights to the bitter end!

Look what happened in Vietnam!

Look what happened in Iraq!

It’s as if you don’t even give a damn!

 

To which our president proclaimed:

Exactly! Now bow your heads in shame!

You lied to Afghans when you said forever

We lied to our own when we said never

Again would we send soldiers to war

When we don’t really know what it’s for

We got our revenge we slaughtered AQ

After that we didn’t know what to do

 

You had three terms to get it done

Now you act like you’re oh so stunned

You didn’t even give it a try

So now it’s on you when people die

And still we don’t know why

 

 

Ida: New Orleans Survives

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

Ida

 

Memories of Katrina haunt me

As if it happened yesterday

I want to scream at the TV screen:

Get out! You’re in the way!

 

Ida is category two and churning

From Havana to New Orleans

The roads are all jammed

The people are under warning

The fires of Hades burning

 

Will Ida hit like Katrina did?

Will the authorities be unprepared?

Will the lower ninth be flooded?

Will our sense of outrage be shared?

 

We have entered an age of tragedy

It often feels like the end of days

The chain of horrors relentless

Seems our legs are made of clay

 

New Orleans Survives

 

Ida hit the Gulf Coast hard

Like a bombardment of missiles

Like at twenty-foot wave

Like the breath of an angry god

Full of wrath wind and rain

 

The power died before nightfall

Leaving those who stayed behind

Hiding seeking shelter inside

They would baton down the hatches

They would fight back the storm

They would protect their belongings

They would protect their homes

They would do what they could

But the storm kept rolling

Churning like a beast

Spreading mass destruction

Like the Saint’s final feast

 

The people of New Orleans

Know they’re lucky to be alive

They have fought through the years

Self-assured they would survive

 

It’s not a war zone like Kabul

It’s not the end of a long drive

It’s a place where a culture

And its music still thrives

 

So help them through this crisis

As they suffer and we cry

We will do what it takes

To help New Orleans survive