The Great Dictators

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

The Great Dictators

 

Putin and Xi to a large degree

Are the greatest threats to global peace

Xi thinks nothing of forced labor

They are no worse than their evil neighbor

Putin is busy rattling his saber

All hail the great dictators!

 

Putin claims a righteous cause

Abusing borders and flaunting laws

He did the same in Belarus

Denied the people a right to choose

Between freedom and democracy

Or a life ruled by hypocrisy

Putin is a miserable satyr

All hail the great dictator!

 

What can be said of Chairman Xi?

How horrifying can one man be?

Suppressing protests in Hong Kong

We knew where he stood all along

He sees democracy as the great threat

Taiwan, Hong Kong and Tibet

Genocide: Can we turn our backs?

Tiananmen Square you’re on track

Is there anyone who’s greater?

All hail the great dictator!

 

Woah Canada!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Woah Canada!

 

We think of you as our weaker

but more sophisticated sibling

Canada: Land of the educated

Land of the enlightened

Land of the peaceful and kind

 

We are shocked to see thousands

gathered on the streets of Ottawa

bearing swastikas and yelling obscenities

urinating and spewing degrading epithets

taking a stand against vaccination

 

We have long considered our northern friends

a kinder gentler more civilized breed

Have we infected you with our crudeness?

Have we implanted a hateful seed?

 

Woah Canada! Please say it ain’t so

You have not joined in the crazy race

taking sides with the spread of disease

losing touch with civility and grace

 

We need your sane and steady hand

We need your reasoned sanity

to calm our sometimes frenzied madness

to counter our wayward vanity

 

North Wind

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

North Wind

 

Storm upon storm batters the north

Like an angry Nordic god

The wind the rain the icy chill

Brings bridges down as towns stand still

Fallen trees and flooded streets

No end to this destruction

The biting wind the snow the sleet

This monumental disruption

 

Hide away the elder folk

Hide away the girls and boys

This storm brings endless chill and fright

A bitter end to days of joy

 

The dark of winter will not lift

It hangs on like a curse

And when we finally glimpse the light

It hammers us much worse

 

We wonder at the things we’ve done

To deserve this horrid storm

We huddle by the fireside

And hold on to the warm

 

Alas the sunlight breaks the day

And lingers from the morn

But we will long remember

This endless winter storm

 

The Equation (Putin's Gambit)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

The Equation (Putin’s Gambit)

 

To war or not to war is an equation

In the minds of leaders of nations

Thirst for war is like a contagion

Give the order begin the invasion

 

The people follow like herded cattle

The least provocation to the first battle

Hatred comes easy to a people at war

Killers and rapists are at the door

 

A nation at war will rally support

Like the underdog in a popular sport

When a leader loses his hold on power

Mark the assault to the day and hour

 

The equation now is in Putin’s head

Recalculation before he goes to bed

Heads is war and tails is peace

The dogs of war nip at his feet

 

He calculates the gains he’d make

Support at home the land he’d take

To make his Mother Russia proud

The one true leader who never cowed

 

He calculates his costs of war

Seized assets making Russians poor

How much will his people suffer

To create a fictional power buffer?

 

What if they took his personal money?

Do his enemies possess that much cunning?

You can bet they do and yes they will

So stop the drums of war from drumming!

Russians Rise Up!

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Russians Rise Up!

 

From Moscow to St. Petersburg

From the Urals to the Baltic Sea

From the Volga to the Arctic Circle

From Eastern Europe to Siberia

 

Rise up and be counted!

Rise up in the name of freedom!

Rise up for your own independence!

Rise up for the people of Ukraine!

Rise up against the Great Dictator!

Rise up for Alexei Navalny!

Rise up for a brighter future!

Rise up to demand a change!

Rise up for prisoners of conscience!

Rise up for all the journalists

and dissidents who gave their lives

so that you might live in freedom!

 

The people of Mother Russia

do not deserve a life of oppression

any more than the people of Ukraine

or the people of Georgia

or the people of Albania

or the people of Romania, Poland

Bohemia, Slovakia and Belarus

All the peoples who have known

the iron fist of Soviet brutality

 

Rise up!

March on the streets of protest!

Once more in the spirit of liberty!

Once more in the spirit of equality!

Let the dictator know his days

cannot endure the hour!

The world cannot live in peace

while people are subjugated

in any nation anywhere!

 

Rise up children of Mother Russia

and let him know his reign of terror

has come to a merciful end!