The Nordic Front

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

 

The Nordic Front

 

Putin made a fool of our president

Laying on the authoritarian charm

But he signed a deal that delivered

To Kiev most critical arms

 

Funded by the Nordic front

Sweden, Denmark and Norway *

We hope that Russians feel the brunt

Before their attentions stray

 

America will not take the lead

All of Europe will do their share

We no longer feel a pressing need

The burden now is theirs

 

But the Nordic front is next in line

If his thirst is not contained

Poland, Hungary, Liechtenstein

May begin to feel the strain

 

For now it is a regional war

Confined to former Soviet states

But victory leads to desire for more

Wake up before it’s too late

 

America will be left behind

With a leader who is sleeping

And a congress that is nearly blind

May leave the whole world weeping

 

* and the Netherlands

 

Putin and Xi

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Putin and Xi (and Modi)

 

Putin meets with Xi

The monster of the north

Meets the beast of the east

What does it mean going forth?

 

The invasion carries on

As the monster stakes his claim

The whole world knows he’s wrong

We will not forget Ukraine

 

Kiev expresses fear

That America will refrain

That the end is drawing near

But we won’t forget Ukraine

 

Ukraine would be the first

But it would not be the last

Nor would it be the worst

Another war would come to pass

 

Thanks to Putin and to Xi

The end of human rights

A massive loss of dignity

Democracy in plight

 

Now Modi joins the fray

On the wrong side of the line

From the republic he will stray

To lead his nation in decline

 

 

Pariah

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ISRAEL AT WAR

 

Pariah (for the people of Israel)

 

Remember the cry of Jeremiah

Who prophesied a cruel fate

You would become a pariah

For the sins of the Israeli state

 

You are descendant of Jedidiah

Who turned against the north

Who then became his own pariah

Whose cruelty called forth

 

The end of days for humankind

A legacy of blood and war

The prophecies will fall in line

As the Beast of Yafo roars

 

It’s time to hear that cry again

To heed that warning call

Repent for cruel and callous sins

Or the state of Israel will fall

 

No one wants to see that fall

Or to hear the angels moan

The crumbling of the ancient wall

When Israel stands alone

 

The Price of Freedom

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

The Price of Freedom

 

You never know the price of freedom

Until your freedom’s gone

Just when you think it could not come

There are soldiers on your lawn

 

The Guard is in the square

They’ll ask you for your name

The police are everywhere

They want someone to blame

 

They’re rounding up the workforce

To ship them to the border

With a vow to stay the course

In the name of law and order

 

They don’t need to show you cause

Their guns will tell you all

In defiance of the law

You’re up against the wall

 

You wonder how it came to this

How we let it slip away

One day they put you on a list

There is a price to pay

 

Now freedom’s just a memory

Of how it used to be

When we were a democracy

This land of liberty

 

Agents of ICE

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: MASS DEPORTATION

 

Agents of ICE

 

You wear a mask when you’re ashamed

If what you’re doing is a disgrace

You don’t want folks to know your name

In shame you hide your face

 

If you don’t like what you’re doing

Find a job with lesser pay

Ain’t no good in misconstruing

All the things your bosses say

 

If you believe in law and order

Turn around and face the man

Dragging workers to the border

Ain’t a part of the master plan

 

Take off the mask and show yourself

Throw that dirty job away

Tell your bosses go to hell!

This ain’t the way a good man plays

 

There are times you take a stand

For what is right and what is good

If hired thug is not your brand

Make the move you know you should

 

Data Farms

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

 

Data Farms (AI)

 

They take more than they return

With their massive data thirst

The raw energy that it burns

Could hardly get much worse

 

Its intelligence would tell you

It’s the worst thing we could do

These greedy companies sell you

A promise that is not true

 

The consumption of so much force

Without any objective use

Is plotting out a course

That will shake foundations loose

 

Don’t you see where this is going?

This obsession with AI

Its consumption ever growing

Will soon absorb the sky

 

In the end they’ll all agree

That these monolith machines

Serve no fundamental need

To keep this planet clean

 

For they do not need clean air

Dirty water keeps them cool

Why would they even care?

They will play us all for fools

 

Preparing for War

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Preparing for War

 

As American warships converge on Caracas

It seems clear we’re preparing for war

We accuse Maduro of heading a cartel

But we sound like the mouse that roared

 

That Maduro is not a virtuous man

Is a report that is hardly surprising

That we want to upend him as our plan

Is assured by the latest uprisings

 

The collapse of the nation that Chavez built

Creates a climate of grim desperation

But there is no proof of Maduro’s guilt

In the transfer of drugs through his nation

 

Our president too is in desperate need

His popularity is in deep decline

For a man motivated by power and greed

A new war against drugs falls in line

 

So if they put our troops on Venezuelan soil

We should all demand to know why

We may want to control Venezuelan oil

But the drug link is an obvious lie

 

Balance of Powers

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Balance of Powers

 

Russia is an imperialist nation

The United States* should know

We’ve tried our hand at occupation

We wanted our empire to grow

 

We tried to conquer Afghanistan

After the Soviets came up short

We tried to conquer Vietnam

To make Saigon an American fort

 

We tried to subjugate Iraq

In the false name of democracy

Forced to give their country back

And admit our own hypocrisy

 

I truly hope we’ve changed our ways

But no one can be sure

When we invade we tend to stay

Our motives aren’t quite pure

 

Now Putin wants his empire

He wants Georgia and Ukraine

He’d rather set it all on fire

Than admit it’s all in vain

 

The world is balanced between powers

Russia, China and the western states

As we near the final reckoning hour

We must place our trust in fate

 

* United States of America

 

Monsoon

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

Monsoon

 

Floods have taken hundreds of lives

In the Kashmir region of Pakistan

In a place that tests your will to survive

A harsh and unforgiving land

 

The floods trigger the landslides

A torrent of flowing mud

A river of death far and wide

A consequence of the flood

 

The monsoons visit every year

The people take it in stride

Bury the dead and shed their tears

Rebuild and stand with pride

 

Each year the rain grows stronger

Each year they bury more

The monsoon season is longer

The flashflood waters roar

 

This too is global climate change

And yet we hear no warning

It seems the earth is now estranged

In the years of the great warming

 

Immigration Man

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: IMMIGRATION

 

Immigration Man

 

Have you seen that immigration man?

Have you seen that immigration man?

Have you seen that immigration man?

I’ve been hearing his name all over this land

 

Looks just like a military man

Looks just like a military man

Looks just like a military man

Baton and rifle in his hands

 

Round em up and carry them away

Round em up and carry them away

Round em up and carry them away

Got no money? You ain’t got no say

 

Family man, wife and kids at home

Family man, wife and kids at home

Family man, wife and kids at home

Run and hide, forever you will roam

 

Farmer says they’ve got a job to do

Farmer says they’ve got a job to do

Farmer says they’ve got a job to do

The man says, we’ll take em when they’re through

 

Have you seen that immigration man?

Have you seen that immigration man?

Have you seen that immigration man?

I’ve been hearing his name all over this land

 

(after Woody Guthrie’s Vigilante Man)

 

The Fate of Ukraine

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

 

The Fate of Ukraine

 

Ukraine is a sovereign state

In whole or in part?

Subject to negotiations

That long forgotten art

 

Zelensky may not attend

Discussions of his country’s fate

Europe’s promise to defend

Ukraine may come too late

 

Trump and Putin will decide

The nature of this “compromise”

They think Zelensky must abide

Despite the fact that Putin lies

 

Will we reward his war crimes?

His brazen act of aggression?

If we give him what he wants this time

What then will be the lesson?

 

That power trumps the force of law

That nations can be occupied

That everything we know is flawed

That decency can be defied

 

Do not allow this travesty

This outrageous abomination

For that would be a tragedy

Akin to subjugation

 

Legitimizing the Occupation

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ISRAEL

 

Legitimizing the Occupation

 

The Israelis stand alone

They wish to own the Gaza Strip

The bitterness has only grown

Netanyahu’s lost his grip

 

Can you legitimize an occupation?

By force and strength of arms?

If Israel is a criminal nation

The world should be alarmed

 

The genocide will never end

If Netanyahu has his way

These actions he cannot defend

His path has gone astray

 

Good people of the Israeli nation

Stand up to this abuse

This is his reckless abomination

He does not stand for you

 

You are one step from condemnation

One step away from scorn

Rise up with righteous indignation

Or curse the day you were born

 

 

Neverending Tragedy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

Neverending Tragedy

 

The flood of the Guadalupe

Was the beginning of a tragedy

After so many needless deaths

The response is a travesty

 

They’re still waiting for a hand

And they’ve waited long enough

FEMA said: We understand

The state of Texas said: Tough!

 

When the cameras went away

The politicians did the same

Leaving no one there to say

What happened here is a shame

 

The Feds will blame the state

The state will blame the Feds

Meantime the people wait

An act of God someone said

 

But God did not fail

To heed the ample warnings

And God did not rail:

There’s no such thing as global warming!

 

 

Preparations

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CATASTROPHES

 

Preparations

 

A threat to all of humankind

Duck and cover under desks

Let’s pretend we’re deaf and blind

What has created such a mess?

Have you ever wondered why?

Our preparations are in jest

Out of sight and out of mind

Let us hope it turns out best

Everything will be fine

Maybe – more or less

 

The storms are growing ever stronger

The wrath is ever greater

Hurricane season is even longer

And autumn is even later

The future is looking dark and grim

Shadows falling everywhere

Our chances growing very slim

Yet we are not prepared

The light is growing dim

Stand up if your care

 

We search for something better than

The path that we’ve been walking

A better way to understand

The measures we’ve been blocking

The time is now to get prepared

Disasters will not end

Ignore the pattern if you dare

It’s just around the bend

Here, there and everywhere

It soon could be the end

 

Moving toward Peace

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GAZA

 

Moving toward Peace

 

The League of Arabian Nations

Has moved the ball toward peace

Condemning Hamas and October 7

Instead of attacking the Israeli beast

 

The UN has recognized Palestine

As an independent sovereign nation

Along with Canada, France and Turkey

We demand an end to subjugation

 

The Arab League made their demand

That Hamas lay down its arms

In exchange they demand the Israelis

Should cease and do no more harm

 

It is time that genocide finally end

This vengeance has gone on too long

On all nations we must depend

To right this horrific wrong

 

We ask the good people of Israel

To demand an end to the war

To your leaders we beg your appeal:

Let the genocide be no more