Shanghai Lockdown

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Shanghai Lockdown

 

The virus that came from China

Is living and thriving there still

The question must never be asked:

How many has the virus killed?

 

They claimed a national victory

A source of honor and pride

No virus could ever defeat them

For the party would not abide

 

They have locked down a great city

Whose people now live in fear

They are losing so many loved ones

But they are not allowed to shed tears

 

We cry for the Chinese people

As we mourn all the dead and the ill

We now know we must come together

When confronting a virus that kills

 

Down

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Down

 

A scourge has lowered upon our town

Our home and happy days

Descend we will as descend we must

There is no other way

 

We’re lost inside a maze of tunnels

That trace the underground

We seek to circle back again

But the only way is down

 

There is no cure for this disease

No path to turn around

We’ve had our taste of ecstasy

Now we’ve run the ship aground

 

We bow our heads in solemn prayer

We cannot hear a sound

A bit of hope a touch of care

Are nowhere to be found

 

Why have you forsaken us?

Our destiny is bound

We beg for mercy as we must

Yet still we spiral down

 

False Report

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS (UKRAINE)

False Report

 

In Moscow you can get prison time

For using the word war

In Russia you can lose your freedom

For asking why and what for?

In Moscow there are the ghosts

Of journalists and politicians

To remind us the cost of free speech

 

So tell me: if someone in Moscow

Or Vladivostok calls to ask

Your opinion of the president

What kind of fool would you have to be

To tell them the truth?

 

So when someone reports that 83 percent

Of the Russian people

Still support their president

The miracle is that seventeen percent

Refused to play the game

 

Soon the jails and prisons of Russia

Will be filled with dissidents

Draft resisters and soldiers

Who refused to fight

And all the world must rally

To their support

 

The Butcher of Aleppo

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS (UKRAINE)

The Butcher of Aleppo

 

The Russian butcher of Aleppo

Has come to Ukraine

Mass graves become common

Bombs fall like a hard rain

 

Towns and cities destroyed

Reduced to barren waste

Death of innocence sanctioned

Opposing forces erased

 

The butcher has no feeling

A soul as empty as a ghost

He’ll leave a trail of terror

From the mountains to the coast

 

There is no end to the horror

This monster will unleash

We must rise to meet the moment

To cage a rabid beast