The Iceman Cometh

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POLICE STATE

 

The Iceman Cometh *

 

She wasn’t an activist

(so what if she was)

She was a mother who dropped her child

off at school

She wasn’t obstructing the Icemen

(so what if she was)

She was trying to get away

when she found herself in a situation

Surrounded by angry men

Heavily armed, armored and vested

Some yelling at her to get out

Some yelling at her to move on

Was she frightened?  Maybe

When the Iceman cometh you should

be frightened

 

She tried to move on and they shot her

Not one of them came to her aid

Not one of them voiced disapproval

They blocked a doctor on the scene

They covered the truth

They lied

They called her a dirty red

She deserved to die they said

 

When the Icemen come to your town

Beware

Beware if you stand in their way

Beware if you tell them you’re not angry

Beware if you don’t move fast enough

Beware if you’re startled and afraid

They have proclaimed the right

to shoot you dead

 

When the Iceman cometh hide away

When the Iceman cometh bolt your door

When the Iceman cometh do not stray

When the Iceman cometh: war

 

* A play by Eugene O'Neill  

 

ICE Cold Killer

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN JUSTICE

 

ICE Cold Killer

 

An alleged officer of the law

Drew his gun and killed her dead

The video footage may be raw

But it fill all decent folks with dread

 

They closed ranks and tried to blame her

For simply wanting to survive

As time goes on they’ll try to shame her

But someone filmed it live

 

Now we’re recalling George Floyd

And all that happened in his name

Our sense of justice was destroyed

A lasting legacy of shame

 

There is no peace across the land

It is a time of rage and strife

The evil ones have made a stand

Renee Good has lost her life

 

She was a mother and a friend

Tonight she is no longer

A precious life has found an end

The resistance must grow stronger

 

 

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

 

 

American Gestapo

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POLICE STATE

 

American Gestapo

 

A secret agent of the state

That targets a minority

Enough to make us contemplate

The darkest page of history

 

They have money in their bank

Without constraint of oversight

They could buy a Sherman tank

And roll it down the street at night

 

No one wants them in their town

No one wants them in their city

They only take good people down

In a way that’s never pretty

 

They no longer have a place

In a land that’s free and just

If they vanished without a trace

Few would grieve or even cuss

 

For they’ve earned the scorn of all

Who hold our values in esteem

As they rise our virtue falls

We who hold on to the dream

 

Please believe us when we say

Your kind is never wanted here

Yours will never be our way

For we hold the promise dear

 

Homeland Security

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

 

Homeland Security

 

Homeland Security was supposed

to protect us from terrorist attacks

Now they’re rounding up immigrants

on the streets of our cities

They’ve become a force of oppression

A force that the people fight back

 

This is the way of law enforcement

This is the way of intelligence agencies

They may begin with good intentions

But they gather power like shit gathers flies

They become the instruments of some

madman’s misbegotten lies

 

Are there no real terrorists to fight?

Or have they dropped the ball once again?

Are they on the job or have they lost sight?

Just like they did way back then

 

They don’t belong on the streets of LA

They should not be doing the job of ICE

Go back to you origin and find a way

Or we will all be paying a steep price

 

 

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

 

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)

 

Gringo Go Home!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: IMMIGRATION

 

Gringo Go Home

 

Up north they want the border closed

Down south they’re beginning to see

Both sides want the change to slow

They’re not sure what to plead

 

The northerners are moving in

The cost of housing on the rise

The locals lose, the landlords win

When they cater to the gentrified

 

The workers cannot pay the rent

They being pushed aside

Their patience is being spent

Not much longer will they ride

 

It’s happening across the board

On both sides of the border

It strikes on a rebellious chord

And triggers law and order

 

The people rise up everywhere

Their anger springs from fear

You don’t want our workers there?

We don’t want your money here!

 

(Massive protests in Mexico City)

 

MacArthur Park

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: MASS DEPORTATION

 

MacArthur Park

 

The day the troops came to LA

The images are stark

They did not come to play

When they stormed MacArthur Park

 

They came for those with darker skin

The workers of the sun

I doubt that they will come again

The summer has begun

 

We need the workers in the fields

We need them in our homes

It seems the soldiers made a deal

The nation sold their souls

 

The people all around the land

Have made their feelings clear

In case you did not understand

You are not welcome here

 

If you serve a cause that’s just and fair

We would not need to ask

If you were welcomed anywhere

Why do you wear a mask?

 

 

ICE

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: MASS DEPORTION

 

ICE

 

ICE is the new Brown Shirts

The American SS and the KGB

A force buried in American dirt

From sea to hypocritical sea

 

Is this the look you MAGA’s want?

All jaundiced and diseased

Tired, ugly, bloody and gaunt

Beneath our desperate pleas

 

America the true and free

Has vanished with the wind

A land we thought could never be

A fortress built of tin

 

What happened to our liberties?

We’ve lost what we revered

Gone with our democracy

Submerged in blood and tears

 

Our darkest days will linger on

Until we stop them cold

The opposition must hold strong

The resistance must be bold

 

 

 

Immigration Gestapo

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: IMMIGRATION

  

Immigration Gestapo

 

The émigré gestapo is coming

To spread terror in your town

Factory workers start running

Before you’re beaten to the ground

 

They don’t care about your rights

Your rights expired yesterday

They’re more than ready for a fight

Your people do not have a say

 

You are something less than human

So our president has decreed

His gestapo friends are fuming

They would love to see you bleed

 

Towns and cities across the land

Get prepared to be invaded

Unless you want to make a stand

The light of liberty has faded

 

It seems our nation’s gone astray

Our doors and gates are locked

The new gestapo is here to stay

The road to freedom has been blocked

 

Rights on Hold

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Rights on Hold

 

When rights are suspended for others

We sacrifice much of our own

What we do to one another

Must one day be atoned

 

When our rights are placed on hold

When the guarantee is lost

It means our rights can be sold

By any cruel and ruthless boss

 

We have placed our fate in hands

That never should be trusted

It’s too late to understand

When all your friends are busted

 

So you thought it was just the others

The ones with darker skin

Then they came for your brothers

And your rationale grew thin

 

Now you’re running with the rest of us

And you regret those things you did

Now you’re in the back of the bus

With the servants and their kids

 

 

The Guard in LA

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CIVIL LIBERTIES

 

The Guard in LA

 

To brutalize the people

Is not the duty of the Guard

You’re leaving us no option

But to push back hard

 

The agents of the Homeland

Are completely out of place

Waging war against the people

An incredible disgrace

 

The people do not want you here

Throw your weapons to the ground

You’re marketing in hate and fear

To this course you are not bound

 

For this is not a war zone

No one summoned you for aid

The violence you’ve caused has grown

Tear down your damned blockades

 

Ask yourselves what you are serving

The cause of peace or war

The people here are not deserving

They’re just unfortunate and poor

 

 

 

A Long Hard Road Part IV

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUE HISTORY

 

A Long Hard Road Part IV

 

They came to California on a promise of jobs

Where there was fruit on the vine and peaches

on trees just ripe for the picking

But there was way more refugees than

there was jobs

 

And there was a whole lot of people with skin

a shade darker working those fields of plenty

long before the dust bowl migration

 

They gathered together in sprawling camps of

makeshift shelters and worked like slaves of labor

 

Long hard hours for little pay

Kicked and spit at like stray dogs

 

When the boss man came up short on his payroll

Or got a little greedier than he usually was

He’d call the immigration bulls

 

The Mexicanos would go a running

Those who weren’t fast enough or were

Just too tired to run would be rounded up

Like cattle and took down to the border

 

Sometimes they took em in planes

A man name of Woody sang about it:

 

  The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting

  The oranges piled in the creosote dumps

  They’re flying em back to the Mexican border

  To pay all their money to wade back again

 

  Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita

  Adios mes amigos, Jesus y Maria

  You won’t have your names when you ride

  the big airplane

  and all they will call you will be deportee

 

You might wonder how the poor white folk

couldn’t see that what happened to them back

in Oklahoma is what happened to the

Mexicans here in California

 

Cheated out of their homes and pushed off

their land

 

You might wonder how they couldn’t see that

What happened to them happened to the

Cherokee a way back in Tennessee

 

It ain’t about the color of your skin

It’s about how much you have in your pocket

It ain’t about how you talk or where you’re from

It’s about greed

It’s about never being satisfied with what you

have but always wanting more

It’s about not caring who you have to cheat or

abuse to get what you want

 

It’s all connected

One long hard road

It’s all the same thing

And we’re all in it together

 

  This land is your land

  This land is my land

  From California to the New York island

  From the redwood forest

  to the Gulf Stream waters

  This land was made for me and you

 

(for Alan Arnopole and Woody Guthrie)