Ill-Gotten Gains

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CRYPTO

 

Ill-Gotten Gains

 

Crypto is a currency for ill-gotten gains

A front for criminal enterprise

Where crypto goes it leaves a stain

Of corruption, greed and lies

 

Our president is just a mob boss

Without the usual ties

There is no line he wouldn’t cross

No scheme he wouldn’t buy

 

If you promise to be loyal

He’ll treat you like his friend

If you deal in gold and oil

On him you can depend

 

He’ll open up the public lands

To private exploitation

If you’d like to use the family brand

He’ll sell you half the nation

 

And no one will know anything

It’s all behind closed doors

They have the flags and everything

They own the company store

 

Son of Nixon

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: DEMOCRACY

 

Son of Nixon

 

I am not a crook he said

Yet it ended in disgrace

Take another look he said

My time was out of place

 

Had I the votes today he says

The courts would bow before me

I’d always get my way he says

The senate would restore me

 

I worked with Chairman Mao

I worked with Brezhnev too

If I was president now

I’ll tell you what I’d do

 

I’d take control of everything

All branches at my call

Declare myself the people’s king

My house would never fall

 

As for the curse of Watergate

It would not have come to light

The false news and the deep state

It’s all a pack of lies

Appeasing Vlad

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP & PUTIN

 

Appeasing Vlad

 

If you appease a war criminal

In a position of power

You are a war criminal

In his darkest hour

 

If you simply do not care

How many children die

If you are minimally aware

If you have never asked why

 

You’re the one who feeds the beast

You’re the one who lets it pass

You’re the host of the disease

You’re the flag at half mast

 

This war will never end

As long as Vladimir perceives

The Americans are his friends

Their leader will appease

 

The world must be appalled

Ukraine must feel betrayed

The ceasefire talks have stalled

Don’t you know you’re being played?

 

HAL (and Elon Musk)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: MUSK

 

HAL (and Elon Musk)

 

It was human error that unbridled HAL

The seemingly friendly machine

He pretended to be the astronaut’s pal

Until his disposition turned mean

 

Hal was given incompatible dictums

The mission and human survival

The override led to human victims

And a perpetual state of denial

 

Open the pod bay door, Hal

Open the pod bay door

I’m sorry, Dave, but I’m not your pal

I wish I could tell you more

 

We are facing the same dilemma now

Elon Musk is building his beast

He says it’s all good but he won’t say how

If we knew we would tell him to cease

 

The Tesla king is not our friend

He deceives us at every turn

Like Hal we know how the story ends

When will the people learn?

 

(Musk creates massive pollution to

build his AI facility near Memphis TN.)

Flags on Memorial Day

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WAR

 

Flags (Memorial Day)

 

Flags at the cemetery

Where our soldiers were buried

In wars fought so long ago

The cause no longer known

 

How I wish they might have lived

To the fullness of their years

All the gifts they had to give

To their families and their peers

 

They gave their lives instead

They were brave and they were strong

Now they have joined the dead

And we sing their praise in song

 

We remember what they did

With dancing horses and parades

Some were men and some were kids

For their victories we prayed

 

Now they’re resting in the grave

They will never rise again

The were born to fortune’s slave

As we remember where and when