Malibu Mourning

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

Malibu Mourning

 

Flames rage through Malibu

Home to the rich and famed

Howling winds of Santa Ana

Feed the anger of the flames

 

Run to save your lives

Run and don’t look back

Your homes and your belongings

Slowly fade to black

 

This is a place of beauty

Nature’s best and brightest star

We know you will come back

But we cannot know how far

 

This is only a beginning

Of the tragedies to come

It doesn’t matter where you live

Or where you traveled from

 

The warming comes a rising

Like a wave of thrumming dread

How many homes will vanish?

How many will be dead?

 

The Crusader

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

The Crusader (Pete Hegseth)

 

Those who do not know their history

Are most often condemned to repeat

They very worst of our worst atrocities

The Crusades ended in defeat

 

The Crusaders killed with utter pleasure

Annihilation was their only plan

They led massacres at their leisure

Killing children, woman and man

 

They believed their sword was blessed

Because they wore the Crusader’s cross

All sins forgiven when confessed

They never thought about the cost

 

In innocent lives and human suffering

In generations sworn to hate

All to grasp that illusive ring

To stake claim to their eternal fate

 

Now some would like a new Crusade

For another century of blood

Exchange the bullet for the blade

Watch the stream become a flood

 

(Trump’s choice for Defense Secretary

is a champion of the crusades.)

 

Buying the Presidency

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Buying the Presidency

 

With the blessings of the Court Supreme

That lifted limits on contributions

Elon Musk has bought the White House

Along with all its institutions

(which he may ban from existence)

 

He pumped a fortune into propaganda

Without restrictions on content

He won a seat at the table of power

Now we’ll discovery his intent

(we can be sure it isn’t pretty)

 

Will the president sit him down

And attempt to put him in his place?

We’ll find out about his ego

Will he tell him to his face?

(and what a face it is)

 

I’m the richest man on earth, he’ll say

And I’d hate to tell you twice

If I want rice for dinner

By God, we’re having rice

(he brought his own chef)

 

You may think you have the power

But there’s not much you can do

If you’d like a talk with Vladimir

My office will approve

(and so the story goes)

 

(Musk puts up 750 million to elect Trump)

 

Trying Times

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Trying Times

 

“These are the times that try men’s souls…”

 

  -- Thomas Paine, The American Crisis

 

As it was in America circa 1774

So it is today in Ukraine

It is a hard fought and bitter war

Sometimes it seems in vain

But those who stand it now

Through winter’s harshest strain

Deserve the eternal blessings

Of all who love Ukraine

 

We cannot blame the ones who fall

Who can’t endure the pain

For many answer to the call

Before their hopes are slain

Who cannot climb another wall

Though their love will never wane

 

Forgive them for their changing hearts

Their loyalty is plain

The war has broken them apart

We fear it breaks Ukraine

But those who stay the course

Will stand forever tall

The heroes of this dirty war

The love of one and all

 

(Ukrainian soldiers flee the battlefield.)

 

The Fall of Damascus

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: SYRIA

The Fall of Damascus

 

In the absence of opposing power

Damascus will fall

 

Iran is weakened by the Israeli war

Russia cannot answer the call

Their soldiers are preoccupied

Up against a Ukrainian wall

The Islamic State is still alive

Turkey is fighting the Kurds

The rest are divided into disparate tribes

Awaiting the latest word

 

In the absence of an opposing power

The remaining powers thrive

 

What happens next nobody knows

Save that anarchy will reign

A constant struggle only grows

A land of chaos gone insane

The civil war will carry on

Until some party wins

The tyrant of the day is gone

The tyranny begins

 

In the absence of opposing power

The prevailing wind grows strong