The Nuke

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

The Nuke

 

Vladimir Putin has the nuke

And he’s not afraid to flaunt it

Nuclear subs off the Florida coast

You’ve got war if you want it

 

Such recklessness is rare indeed

Deserves a stern rebuke

A world in danger doesn’t need

A taunting of the nuke

 

He’s willing to destroy the earth

In all his evil glory

To give his evil empire birth

A terrifying story

 

A million lives means nothing

To a man who believes he’s God

He hears a thousand angels sing

He expects us to applaud

 

The world must stand as one against

The threat of annihilation

Cease this path of gross offense

We plead for your salvation

 

Words Fail

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Words Fail

 

I don’t know what you learned in school

The Civil War was right against wrong

It was not a primeval dual

The Bill of Rights is not a song

We oppose a one-man rule

We’re better off if we get along

Fascism is never cool

In unity we are strong

 

When he says he will imprison those

Who oppose his infallible will

That is how fascism rose

It is clearly with us still

Everyone with an open mind knows

As our measure of outrage fills

The threat to our republic grows

They are closing for the kill

 

We will not give up the fight

We will stand on solid ground

We will keep our foes in sight

We will keep our friends around

We will bind our cause to the light

Until at last we’re homeward bound

The Dead of Nuseirat

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ISRAEL AT WAR

The Dead of Nuseirat

 

Two hundred dead in Nuseirat

Four Israeli hostages freed

Were they all Hamas terrorists?

Women and children?

Nits make fleas?

 

What are we to believe?

What is the cost of rescue

If we lose our immortal soul?

Two hundred dead in Nuseirat

The justification leaves me cold

 

I know Hamas is guilty

They should never be forgiven

They set this train in motion

They must be made accountable

But Hamas is not Gaza

Gaza is not Hamas

You push them into a corner

And blame them for being trapped

 

The innocent of Nuseirat

Did not deserve to die

 

Kenyans in Haiti

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Kenyans in Haiti

 

Haiti descends into madness

A lawless, chaotic society

A society of thugs and criminals

Gangs and gangsters

Roaming the hungry streets

Marking the neighborhood territories

Like wild dogs on the prowl

Guns are more plentiful than drinking water

Thousands killed and thousands displaced

A self-imposed genocide

 

The Spanish, French and Americans failed

Now Kenya leads a multinational force

A force of two thousand five hundred police

Charged with dismantling the rule of anarchy

Charged with imposing order on chaos

Charged with displacing the mob

 

As Henry said to Eleanor:

Do you think there’s any chance of it?

Eleanor only laughed *

 

The world shares the failure in Haiti

The world must take responsibility

 

* From The Lion in Winter

Nobody Cares

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Nobody Cares

 

They took your train for a ride

Maybe they thought it was fun

In jest they took your side

You called them to act on January 6

Your mobsters crashed the capitol

Carrying flags of white supremacy

You told them you’d lead them

But you weren’t there

You hemmed and hawed

But nobody cares

 

They did your bidding and you ran away

They paid for what they did that day

 

Four years later you called again

You called for riots in the streets

You called for mass demonstrations

You warned them not to indict

You warned them not to convict

There would be dire consequences

The likes of which we’ve never seen

But there were no demonstrations

They were no riots in the streets

There was hardly a whimper

Outside the bombast echo chamber

Of feigned outrage and real fake news

In the real world they stopped and stared

But no one seemed to care

 

You promised us a riot

You promised violent upheaval

You promised a war of retribution

But you’re not the one who pays

You’re not the one who sacrifices

You won’t even go to jail

You whine and whimper It’s not fair!

It turns out nobody cares