The Long Journey

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

The Long Journey

 

From Haiti to Chile through Mexico

to the Texas border

Can you imagine a more difficult journey?

Things are so bad in Haiti

Earthquakes hurricanes assassinations

They are willing to pay a series

of unreputable brokers

Leaving behind all property

Leaving behind all belongings

Leaving loved ones and family ties

to be transported over sea

Across land traversing jungles

Across desert and barren wasteland

Through cities of sprawling poverty

Confronting gangs and lowlife criminals

Only to confront the wall

at the Texas border

 

Say what you will

Say we cannot have an open border

Say we must protect our own

Say we must draw the line

But do not deny their courage

or the sincerity of their cause

 

They are human beings caught

in a web of destitution

If we would deny them entry

At least afford them respect

Then you will know what

the promise of America means

 

 

The Flag

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

The Flag

 

Do you support the flag?

Depends on what you mean

The flag has come to mean

Many things to many people

If you mean

Do I support the USA?

Then yes I do

Do I support democracy

Equal treatment under the law

Freedom of opportunity

Freedom of speech

Freedom to assemble

The right to vote

The right of a woman to choose?

(ah, there’s the rub

For I see the hesitation in your eyes

The same hesitation that comes into mine

On the right to bear arms)

 

Do I support the flag?

It is but a symbol

Like all symbols it can be bent

To any shape and form

Do I support America?

I do

Without pause or doubt

Do you?

 

Morita

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

Morita

 

She stalks me

She hunts me down

She watches me

She knows who my friends are

She watches them

She hunts them down as well

 

Her eyes are dark as muddy waters

Her heart cold as winter’s night

I loved her once

I fell under her spell

I was young and unafraid

 

She did not hunt me then

She did not stalk

She did not lurk in the shadows

Or beneath the shroud of dark

She teased me with her mystery

I breathed her misty air

I drank from her well

I tasted her passion

And begged for more

 

Her danger enchanted me

Her intrigue pulled me in

Alas she chose another

And lowered her web

 

It was then that I recoiled

She did not inspire love

She consumed it

She did not create beauty

She destroyed it

 

It was then I learned her name

Though I cannot speak it even now

She haunts me

She hunts me down

She takes us one by one

She frightens all she touches

Yet we cannot despise her

Cannot deny her

Without her there is nothing

She is that which injects meaning

Into our lives

 

She knows I will call her

When I am ready

She is always there

Waiting patiently

In shadows

 

Lukashenko of Belarus

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Lukashenko of Belarus

 

Never was a man so proud

Of a legacy of hate

He is oblivious to the fact

That infamy is his fate

 

Not even Putin is so bold

As to flaunt his cold mendacity

If he wasn’t such a monster

His story would elicit pity

 

That Lukashenko is an ogre

Is plain for all to behold

He spoils the very air he breathes

His power he has sold

 

It is time for every dictator

To dissolve into the sunset

Let him walk upon the waters

Just to see if he gets wet

Innocent Dead

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Innocent Dead

 

On this day of remembrance

We are called to mourn

The loss of so many lives

Office workers

First responders

The ones who fell

The ones who survived

We remember them all

With a sense of dread

We remember the innocent dead

 

We recall the horror unleashed that day

We remember the fire brigade

The heroic actions of New York’s best

The unconscionable price they paid

 

We recall the chaos the sirens scream

Unfolding as if in a dream

On this day of mourning

We hang our heads

We remember the innocent dead