Florida Sleeps

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Florida Sleeps

 

They complain about being woke

I don’t know what they mean

They feel oppressed by our progress

From everything I’ve seen

 

They don’t like those kids in Parkland

They want guns in every home

They despise the ones who dance

And those who wear a darker tone

 

While the nation marches forward

They’re enamored with the past

While others push to get there first

They’re determined to be last

 

They don’t care about our freedom

They don’t care if mothers weep

While the rest of us awaken

The state of Florida sleeps

 

Corday

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: HISTORY

 

Corday

 

The nights were long and trying

The world was strange and cold

The order of things was dying

Like a cartwheel grown too old

Upon this scene a ghostly shadow

Who found each footstep trying

As the days gave way to nighttime

As the nights gave way to day

There came the spirit of a deadly thing

Her name was Charlotte Corday

 

They let her pass the city walls

Let her through the city gates

I’ve come to serve the cause, she said

I’ve come to seal my fate

The night was eerie strange and gray

The hour dark and late

She paused to take the moment in

But the moment would not wait

 

Who are you? said Marat

Through his fever twisted mind

Have you come to give me comfort?

Are you a spirit soft and kind?

I’m not that kind of spirit

I must ask you: Are you blind?

I come with dagger hidden

This moment to unwind

It is you Marat I’ve come to slay

What ghost is at my side? he asked

My name is Charlotte Corday

 

I’ve seen the bodies of the dead

I’ve seen what you have wrought

I’ve seen a pile of severed heads

Is this the world you’ve sought?

You’ve left us with no mystery

I’ve come to play my part

My name is etched in history

A dagger to your heart

 

A century or more from now

They’ll remember this fateful day

A fevered madman named Marat

An assassin named Corday

 

(regards to Peter Weiss & Percy Shelly)

The Putin Caucus

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

The Putin Caucus

 

They walk the sacred halls

As if it is a game

But they answer to the call

Of someone else’s name

 

They are the Putin caucus

They serve his want and need

They answer to the Donald

They answer to his greed

 

They are American in name

They are Russian by their deeds

They want to sever fair Ukraine

And plant there Russian seeds

 

It is time to send them home

As our democracy demands

We’ll have no foreign agents

Who follow enemy commands

 

The days and weeks ahead

Will tell us where we stand

Are they but few and scattered?

Are they the leaders of the band?

 

Ukraine is in the balance

Their freedom and their fate

Abandon our alliance

They become a Russian state

 

The Summit of Knowledge (Revised)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

The Summit of Knowledge (Revised)

 

We are a unique species

Unique to the experience of life on earth

We are driven in the pursuit of knowledge

We have invented language to that purpose

We have invented writing and the printing press

We have invented science to reach higher

in the quest for understanding

We have invented the arts and philosophy

to reach beyond the limits of science

We have invented computers and

advanced technology

We have invented and invested in institutions

of higher learning

We have pushed and prodded the depths

of human comprehension

Higher and higher and higher we reach

until at last we have breached the very

summit of all knowledge

and we have come to this conclusion:

We know nothing

We have always known nothing

We will never learn for there is nothing

to learn beyond the simple facts

of life and death

We are here and then we are gone

We are alive and then we are not

We may choose to be good to each other

or we may choose to be cruel

It is better to be good. 

 

Europe Welcomes Zelensky

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Europe Welcomes Zelensky

 

Zelensky takes his rightful place

Among the European nations

That still believe in the enlightened

To lead the world to its salvation

Once again Putin miscalculates

The alliance will not fold

He thrusts his bare aggression

His brutality clear and bold

But Europe stands united

While Putin suddenly seems old

You will not claim this victory

Your failure becomes clear

Disgrace will be your legacy

The end is drawing near