Tears for Vietnam

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

Tears for Vietnam

 

Woe to thee Vietnam

Who fought for freedom hard and long

To falter now in hypocrisy

A failure of democracy

 

The world must now remind

You dissent is not a crime

Speaking out is an obligation

When injustice poisons the nation

 

The fight for freedom will go on

From sunset through the dawn

The march for justice never ends

Gathering allies collecting friends

As long as courts abuse their power

Righteous dissidents will not cower

But stand to speak their minds

The rights of humankind

Cannot be jailed

But will prevail

In time

 

(December 2021:  The People’s Court sentences

Pham Doan Trang to nine years in prison for

Speaking out against the state.)

 

Spirit of Giving

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Spirit of Giving

 

At a time of great destruction

We are tempted to despair

But we find our common voices

In the rhythm of our hearts

We find the spirit of giving

And we demonstrate our care

 

We have so much more compassion

Than any one of us might dare

We are more than our prejudice

We are greater than ourselves

We are one with our families

And we are willing to share

 

In the gentle spirit of giving

As the holidays draw near

Let us open our giving hearts

Let our sense of empathy reign

Let us give what we will and can

Let us shed our loving tears

 

Let us wake up tomorrow

With the same yearning to give

To our brothers and our sisters

To our nephews and our daughters

To the many people in need

Wherever they may live

 

It will be Christmas soon

Let it be Christmas all year

Let us hold in our hearts

That kindred spirit of giving

To all of our loved ones

And all we hold dear

 

Justice

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Justice

 

The life of a gifted child cut short

The honorable fall while cheaters thrive

Victims exposed and punished in court

The system rewards corruption and lies

Justice seems a last resort

 

The gentle never have a decent chance

The crude and vulgar win the prize

The immoral always seem to advance

There are few exceptions for the wise

The lonely are rarely asked to dance

The evil lives while the good man dies

 

There is little justice in this life

Of that we can be certain

It’s rife with misery and strife

Like Helena Bonham and Tim Burton

We journey slowly into the night

Til they lower the final curtain

 

Tears of Love

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Tears of Love

 

There was a woman who shared her love

As if it were a treasure

She handed it out with gentle gloves

Delivering at her pleasure

When she was done she held it in

No more shall you enjoy

She gave you just a taste of sin

As if you were her toy

 

There was a man who loved her well

Who gave his heart in full

Her secrets he swore not to tell

He buried them in a hole

When it was done he almost fell

Where none could ever find him

A tragic place that some call hell

And watched his light grow dim

 

He wrote of love in memories

A love so pure and true

It lived but in his fantasies

A love he never knew

But in his heart he felt it all

A love for all the ages

A love that rose and could not fall

A love that grew in stages

 

There was a man who lived in dreams

He never knew a love so dear

Though love may not be what it seems

He measured love in tears

 

The Abraham Principle

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

The Abraham Principle

 

For he so loved God

That he offered his only son

 

Who among us would not offer

Our own life for the life of a child?

Who would not sacrifice oneself

To save a mother?

 

God and nature make no such offers

God and nature have only one bargain

And that is prescribed by science:

If / Then …

 

If you abuse your stay on earth

If you exploit the planets resources

If you cut down mountains

If you clear cut forests

If you poison rivers

If you pump toxic fumes

Into a finite atmosphere

For decades upon ages without end

If you pretend there is no problem

That God and nature will self-correct

That it is the will of God

That all must suffer to fulfill a prophecy

That it is beyond the will of man

Then you will face certain consequences

 

Then fires will rage in the west

Erasing whole towns from existence

Then storms will strike with deadly force

Marking the land with devastation

Then floods will bury islands

And render towering cities extinct

Then raging winds of fire will

Raze the land from sea to sea

Then mothers will cry for children lost

Then Abraham will offer his only son

Too late the damage done

Too late the damage done