Oil Slick Beach

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

Oil Slick Beach

 

Off the coast of California

They worship the gods of oil still

No matter how many beaches are destroyed

No matter how many birds they kill

 

We thought we outlawed that kind of greed

We thought we were friends of the earth

Now the coastal communities bleed

As we recalculate what oil is worth

 

In a state that takes pride in leading green

Do we care only when it has no costs?

We promised the world a California dream

Do we know how much we have lost?

 

It is time to stop the drilling for oil

Off the coast of the state that cares

It is time to unwind that avaricious coil

In favor of what’s right and fair

 

On the Take

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

On the Take

 

The truth is a painting in bold colors

Yet the heads pretend we just don’t know

Sinema is on the take of drug pushers

Manchin is on the take of coal

 

It’s a tap dance before the cameras

It’s a breaking news Hollywood show

Sinema is on the take of pharma

Manchin is on the take of coal

 

We’ve played this game too many times

Take another bow and say hello

Sinema is on the take of drug companies

Manchin is on the take of coal

 

It is not about the money we spend

But it’s all about the dough

Sinema is on the take of pharma

Manchin is on the take of coal

 

Yemen (The Hopeless War)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Yemen

 

Never was there a war more hopeless

Never was there a nation more forlorn

Never was there a people in greater distress

Never was a society more torn

 

The world decided to make Yemen pay

For all the divisions we have wrought

Supplied with weapons of mass extinction

And ideologies for which we have fought

 

A clash of the titans with deadly forces

Converge on the poorest of nations

Every radical Islam Sunni or Shia

Was delivered a gold invitation

 

Hundreds of thousands have given their lives

A generation of war and terror

A generation of kids will want to know why

Their lives did not deserve better

 

It’s all about the geography

Some kindly old man will explain

Iran Iraq the Saud’s and the West

Lay their claim to this holy terrain