Impunity

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Impunity

 

“Nothing’s more dangerous than

power with impunity.” 

 

Isabel Allende, Portrait in Sepia

 

 

Nothing speaks of insanity

Nothing could be more extreme

Than a president with impunity

Decreed by the Court Supreme

 

One wonders what they were thinking

On that misbegotten day

When the ship of state was sinking

And they helped it on its way

 

They gifted him immunity

The people did not have a say

They assured enduring disunity

For as long as he would stay

 

So now he’ll stay forever

He will never leave the house

He’s pulling each and every lever

To get his forces armed and roused

 

ICE is his gestapo

Brown Shirts and the Guard

We don’t know where it goes

But we’re sure it goes down hard

 

Our democracy is at stake

She is trembling with desperate fear

Her defenders better stay awake

Or the end times will be here

 

 

The Washington Post

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: FREE PRESS

 

The Post

 

The Post is dead

(long live the Post)

The Washington Post is dead

Jeff Bezos’ Post to Trump is wed

The revered Post is dead

 

And Bezos is the killer

A real-life reporter’s thriller

He shot the famed newspaper dead

He favors propaganda instead

Bezos is the killer

 

Does anybody care?

The press is running scared

Replaced by sycophants and bums

The retail journalistic scum

Does anybody care?

 

The gestapo is in place

They cover up their faces

They threaten violence everywhere

Defy them if you dare

The gestapo is in place

 

So who will tell the truth

About the voting booth?

They’re setting up the lie again

Who will lose and who will win?

And who will tell the truth?

 

Our democracy is in danger

We’re run by wealthy strangers

When you lose free press

You will lose the rest

Our democracy is in danger

 

 

Losing Democracy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Losing Democracy

 

When the oligarchs bought the news

We did not sound the alarm

We’ve other sources we can choose

What could be the harm?

 

When the bought our elections

After buying out the courts

It’s just natural selection

It happens in due course

 

Now they’re controlling information

What we see and what we think

We’ve become a hollow nation

In time our ship will sink

 

They control our foreign trade

And all the laws that we defy

All the fortunes that were made

By selecting winning sides

 

The oligarchs are rising

Like the waves in a monster storm

There are no measures we’re devising

That can save the ones we mourn

 

But we can save our nation

If we rally to the cause

And we can save our reputation

As a nation ruled by laws

 

Cowards

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

 

Cowards

 

The Speaker of the House

A once revered position

Cowers like a timid mouse

Defending treason and sedition

 

The party of corporate greed

Taking profits for themselves

While the constitution bleeds

They’ve got seats reserved in hell

 

The wicked wealthy oligarchs

Who paid for influence and power

May your kingdoms fall apart

May there come a reckoning hour

 

The corrupted Court Supreme

They’ve tossed away their dignity

While their hands were never clean

They are now the court of infamy

 

The party of the opposition

Where is your urgency of now?

If we were in your position

We would never bend or bow

 

Now’s the time to rise as one

Join the people in the streets

Now is your moment in the sun

Get off your bum and on your feet

 

Seize the moment and the day

I’m not advocating violence

We all have our parts to play

Do not squander it in silence

 

Fair Elections

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Fair Elections

 

When the government gains access

To detailed voter information

We’ve failed the democratic test

We’ve become a different nation

 

Yet this government demands

Full access to the voters lists

What’s behind their crooked plan?

There is something gone amiss

 

That states control the ballot place

Is what our law decrees

It is obvious on its very face

Corrupt intention is the deed

 

They will find what they intend to find

Though the ballots are intact

The product of corrupted minds

A disregard for any facts

 

Do not trust what they will tell us

Let them know you see the lie

It’s a story they would sell us

You can see it in their eyes

 

(FBI seizes Fulton County ballots)

 

 

In Defense of Democracy

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

In Defense of Democracy

 

Bolsonaro committed treason

Though he did not go as far

Attempted coup for obvious reasons

The people fought back hard

 

They put the man in prison

A fair trial before his peers

It was not a hard decision

You could hear the people cheer

 

South Korea’s Hun Duck-Soo

Signed on to martial law

Now he’s serving twenty-two

For a failed insurrection plot

 

It seems the people get it right

Nearly every chance they get

Their democracy is worth a fight

If you doubt it place your bet

 

Donald Trump is the exception

He holds his party in his hands

He has practiced his deception

To maintain his evil plan

 

He stands ready to betray

We stand ready to defend

There will come a time and place

When our democracy could end

 

 

Consolidation of Power

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Consolidation of Power

 

The autocrat’s quest for power

Requires consent of the masses

Not just the elite in their ivory towers

But the middle and lower classes

 

His push to take the hemisphere

A far cry from America first

Has the world trembling with fear

It has made our security worse

 

We all know he wants to be king

The crown of a royal empire

He would do almost anything

He would set the sky on fire

 

But he cannot achieve it alone

The people must line up behind him

While his ambitions have only grown

The opposition will confine him

 

This remains a true democracy

As long as the people hold

There will be no gilded autocracy

For the people will not be sold

 

 

Land of the Free

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Land of the Free

 

What land is this I wonder

The purple mountains majesty

The land of grain and thunder

The land of grace and sympathy

The land that pulls you under

 

This is the land of liberty

The land where all are free

The land that wants no misery

The land that lets you be

The land that places family

Among the sacred trees

 

A darkness spread across the land

The shadow of a beast

Some rose up to make a stand

Some cried out for peace

Many hid and many ran

So many more deceased

 

What happened in this land of light

This land of liberty?

The place of law and human rights

The land that sings of thee

A shadow brought an endless night

A curse on all you see

We finally gave up the fight

We are no longer free

 

 

The New Millennium

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICA

 

The New Millennium

 

Twenty-five years into the new millennium

A year of extraordinary upheaval

Not a moment of boredom or tedium

The forces of virtue versus evil

 

Our democracy on the ropes

Bruised and battered by our president

Sliding down that slippery slope

A twisted vision warped and bent

 

His cause of mindless deportation

Pushes forward at a dizzy pace

The very core of the American nation

Devoid of justice and of grace

 

That we’ve endured this bold attack

Is a tribute to our strength and core

Somehow we’ll win our country back

Before he starts another war

 

All to please his quest for power

“The likes of which” we rarely see

The angry king in his lonely tower

A reign of terror, rage and greed

 

May we never see his like again

May his time in office soon expire

The things he’s done we can’t defend

A nation balanced on a wire

 

 

In the Name of Democracy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: DEMOCRACY

 

In the Name of Democracy

 

In the name of democracy

Join the streets of protest

 

In the name of democracy

Resist the oppressors of immigrants

 

In the name of democracy

Rise up to defend the ballot box

 

In the name of democracy

Maintain a constant vigilance

Support your local dissidents

 

In the name of democracy

Challenge all authority

Support independent media

 

In the name of democracy

Teach your children your ideals

Value freedom of speech

 

In the name of democracy

Know the history of our nation

Slavery and subjugation

A little matter of native genocide

The right to vote denied

 

In the name of democracy

Remember who we are

The ones who came from afar

To fight for freedom from a king

The right to worship and to sing

Let the bells of freedom ring

In the name of democracy

 

The Great Voter Purge

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

The Voter Purge

 

It all started in Tallahassee

The Great American Voter Purge

Now it moves from sea to sea

To counter an expected voter surge

 

There’s more than one way to win

Without a majority of votes

Let the next great purge begin

All historians should take notes

 

They’ll take a list of minority names

Gathered from the crime rolls

They’ll paint them all with fiendish shame

They will sell their eternal souls

 

All those voters will be tossed

Without time to restore them

The Democrats will pay the cost

At our peril do we ignore them

 

There is no border they won’t cross

No lie, no fraud, no cheat

To please their crude and wicked boss

To avoid a huge defeat

 

The Ugly American

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP

 

The Ugly American

 

The ugly American has come to pass

We know his name and number

We hope his reign will not last

The dream is in a slumber

 

It seems we don’t like anyone

Who isn’t white and wealthy

Until this wave is finally done

Our nation is not healthy

 

We’ve fallen to the right extreme

The ones who do not care

They never liked the fabled dream

To them it seems unfair

 

That whites are not the ruling class

All others get in line

Money is the only pass

To drink the finest wine

 

We are the world’s worst nightmare

Until that distant day

When the light of reason fills the air

And this one goes away

 

 

The Imperial President

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

The Imperial President

 

If I say it’s the law it’s the law

If I say it’s a crime it’s a crime

The imperial president’s flaw

Puts the nation in a bind

 

We are complicit in our silence

As the president does his will

Acts of war and criminal violence

He has claimed the right to kill

 

In this country we don’t have a king

And we do not have a god

The blowback he will surely bring

The outrage and the fraud

 

He is itching for a fight

To distract us from the files

Whether wrong or whether right

Someone’s bound to get riled

 

As we take another step

Toward losing our republic

As the founding spirits wept

As the clock begins to tick

 

May we change the way we’re thinking

Before we lose it all

The ship of state is sinking

In the days before the fall

 

 

Buying our Democracy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Buying Democracy

 

Our democracy is endangered

By a court that has no pride

It has gone from strange to stranger

As the court finds its stride

 

One man gave a quarter billion

To take hold of the White House

Next time could bring a trillion

The threat is beyond doubt

 

But the court has no concern

They are tarred by the same cash

It’s the people who get burned

There’s no need to even ask

 

Corruption is institutionalized

With the blessings of the court

It is not right, just or wise

The invaders guarding the fort

 

Will we surrender our republic

Without raising a rebel cry?

Has the fog grown so thick

That we won’t even try?

 

A republic, old Ben Franklin said

But only if you can keep it

When our democracy is dead

Will we even seek it?