England and Europe: Breaking the Bond

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL AFFAIRS

England and Europe

 

“Someday we shall have to choose

between England and Europe.”

 

-- James Joyce, The Exiles

 

Brexit marked the end of a unified Europe

The English in their wisdom

Severed the bond that held the promise

of a bright and prosperous future

It seems the English have always seen

themselves above the continent

Not so for Ireland, Scotland, Wales

England casts her lot with America

The mighty land across the sea

The land that tore itself from Britain’s

royal bondage

The land that to this day speaks its

variations of Shakespeare’s tongue

The Irish form their own bonds across

the channel and the sea

The Scottish and the Welsh have

their own independent notions

Dependence on the British is at an end

They saw it coming long ago

The disintegration of the monarchy

The fraying of the isles

We see it coming still

In a world of great uncertainty

We see it with good will

 

Another Year of War

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Another Year of War

 

On the other side of the world

The war continues unabated

Putin’s horrors are unfurled

As if it had been fated

 

We would change it if we could

We would bring it to an end

We would lock away the madman

And all his brutal friends

 

What more can we do but let

Our leaders know we care?

Send our aide and best wishes

Make it easier to bear

 

Make the oligarchs pay the cost

For Putin’s war of cruel attrition

Let him know his cause is lost

Cut off his ammunition

 

In our part of the world

The wars are only metaphors

The battle for democracy

A trail of horrid storms

 

We know life could be harder

We know it could be worse

Our storms are free of missiles

We still think of ourselves first

 

But we swear we’ll not forget

The many hardships you endure

This world is ever smaller

Of that we can be sure

 

The Angry Planet

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

The Angry Planet

 

Planets don’t get angry do they?

Yet they behave as if they do

We would do well to heed the warnings

We have so much to lose

 

Planet earth is angry

Best believe that it is true

She is raging like a banshee

Time to pay our overdues

 

We’ve abuse her far too long

Little wonder she’s upset

If we don’t amend our ways

Soon enough we will regret

 

All the poison that we spewed

Into her soil water air

She will take her due in blood

And we will learn to care

 

Times of Confusion

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN HISTORY

Times of Confusion

 

Back in 1965

We were on the edge of something new

We didn’t know what it was

We didn’t know what we’d do

 

But the old world was rapidly fading

Something had to take its place

We reinvented living in the world

We reconstructed the living space

 

Based on giving what you had

And taking what you needed

They were times of great upheaval

The revolution had been seeded

 

We were riding in the Magic Bus

They tried to send us off to war

When we said no they spit on us

And kicked us out the door

 

They were times of great confusion

Times of wonder and of shame

We rallied to the cause of peace

We found someone to blame

 

Those times live on in each of us

In a thousand different ways

They shaped the road we traveled

Made us who we are today

 

We are a nation twice divided

Once by race, once by culture

When we look at the American way

Some see hawks, some see vultures

 

We are many things at once

We are war and we are peace

We are rich and we are poor

We are hunger at a feast

 

We are everything to everyone

And nothing to a few

When times are rough in Kansas

They’re hard in San Francisco too

 

The Multiverse

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

The Multiverse

 

In one life you’re a beauty queen

In another you’re dark and mean

 

The multiverse is infinite

There are no limits to the dream

We fly we swim into the depths

We make oceans out of streams

 

In one world you’re a genius

In another world you’re second best

 

The multiverse is vast and wild

It takes you on a thousand quests

You find a mask you want to wear

You pass the stiffest test

 

Welcome to the multiverse

You travel east, you travel west

You journey to the end of time

You settle in a robin’s nest

And there you find your truth

You kill a man named Booth

 

The multiverse is quite the place

It’s message is its mystery

A simple twist of time and space

Can even alter history

 

If you don’t like who you are

Change your voice, change your car

Welcome to the multiverse

Come aboard, we will go far