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)

 

 

A Long Hard Road Part III

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUE HISTORY

 

A Long Hard Road Part III

 

A dust storm came and it never left

It stretched out half a continent

High as any man could see

(of course you couldn’t see a thing)

 

Those were the Dust Bowl days

Hard times multiplied a hundred times over

Ain’t nothing you could do about it

Some say it was the farming ways

Swept out the natural brush, dried out the

land and made it ripe for the taking

Some say it was the revenge of the Cherokee

Payback is a punch in the gut

(but the Cherokee are not vengeful people)

A dust storm the size of Texas picked

up the land and blowed it all away

 

A man named Guthrie grew up in those

times and put it down in a song:

 

So long, been good to know ya

So long, it’s been good to know ya

So long, it’s been good to know ya

This dusty old dust is a gettin my home

And I’ve gotta be drifting along

 

He joined the army of the great migration

Thousands of poor folks with all their belongings

stacked up like hotcakes on an iron skillet

heading down the highway of the lost and

misguided looking for the land of plenty

 

When you think about it (and I do) it

sounds a lot like the Trail of Tears

Only there weren’t no people lined up to

watch the long loathsome trail of hardship

It came a way too close to home

 

Busted down and nearly broke

They came west to California

Where they hoped things would be better

For some maybe it was

For many it just weren’t

And that’s another story

 

Birthright Citizenship

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: IMMIGRATION 

Birthright

 

The corporate supremes have dignified

The idiocy of the administration

The lamest case they’ve ever tried

To the detriment of the nation

 

The 14^th amendment is very clear

There is no modicum of doubt

No matter what you read or hear

We’ve figured this one out

 

They feel obliged to coddle him

The bully in the White House

Though his moral light grows very dim

It’s the case of Doctor Faust

 

He’s sold his soul to the dark one

He can never reverse course

His reality becomes a stark one

He’s the King without a Horse

 

But he doesn’t own the Court Supreme

Though he granted them their power

He saw them bowing in a dream

His awakening waits the hour

 

(SCOTUS agrees to hear the case

against birthright citizenship.)

 

Venezuelan Refugees

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: MASS DEPORTATION

 

Venezuelan Refugees

 

Sending refugees to prison in El Salvador

A level of depravity rarely seen

Even in the lowest dream

Like jailing people for being poor

What else would we do?

Are there any limitations?

Have we become a heartless nation?

 

We have lost our moral grounding

It is pitiful and yet it’s true

Our cruelty is astounding

Some would say it’s nothing new

 

They are fleeing from oppression

As we encouraged them to do

We would teach them all a lesson

But we failed to see it through

Now we tell them you’re not welcome here

You’re not welcome anywhere

We condemn you to a life of fear

Though we know it is not fair

 

This is not the old America

The one you knew and loved

This is the hateful nation

The hawk without the dove

 

(Trump administration ships Venezuelan

refugees to prison in El Salvador.)

 

Sorrow's Garden

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: IMMIGRATION

Sorrow’s Garden

 

Solemnity has taken the land

Our brothers and sisters are hiding

Mistakenly we elected a man

Whose one true gift is dividing

 

They’re loading them on planes and trains

They’re sending them far away

They’re leaving behind a moral stain

Our shining colors turned to gray

 

And who will speak for them in sorrow?

And who will dry their tears?

And who will work the fields tomorrow?

And who will count the years?

 

They are the people of the earth

We have known them as our friends

Citizens by right of birth

When will this madness end?

 

We have seen this many times before

We blame hard times on others

We cry out shame and bar the door

On our good sisters and brothers

 

Heartless

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: IMMIGRATION

Heartless

 

How do you tell a child

This world no longer wants you?

How do you tell a child

You must leave your home?

 

Millions of mothers and fathers

Aunts, uncles and grandparents

Must now have that conversation

To prepare for the uncertainty

Of the days that lie ahead

 

Juanita, you are not welcome here

Jose, it is time to go

Your friends are not your friends

Your teachers will not protect you

The police are now your enemies

They will take you from your home

They will place you in a cage

They will make you feel alone

Your family is your only refuge

There is no one else

It is time to go

 

Yesterday is yesterday

Say goodbye to all you know

All that was is no longer

What remains is a lonely road

 

Mass Deportation

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: IMMIGRATION

Mass Deportation

 

Have you heard the news?

They’re clamoring for mass deportation

They don’t want just a few

They believe it’s their salvation

Take a bite of it and chew

They would reinvent this nation

Let it simmer long and brew

It deserves contemplation

 

Send the migrants away

If they don’t have their papers

No longer can they stay

They’re all killers and rapers

Bow your heads now and pray

Lady Liberty? Remake her!

Do not let them stray

Pledge allegiance and fake her

 

Put them all in a cage

Until they’re ready to roll

Any gender and age

From the babes to the old

Put them up on the stage

Be brave and be bold

Let them feel your rage

Til they’ve accomplished their goal

 

Mass Deportations

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Mass Deportation

 

Round em up and head em out

The dark-skinned ones

The undocumented

The ones without bankable skills

The ones without employment

The ones who lack insurance

The one who have no bank accounts

 

Round em up and head em out

By the hundreds and the thousands

On the streets and in the cities

In the alleys and the homeless camps

In the pubs and in the fields

Filling jobs that no one wants

At less than living wages

Under less than decent conditions

 

Round em up and head em out

When they’re no longer useful

When they’ve spent their last buck

When the boss can’t make the payroll

When they cost more than they’re worth

When politicians need a scapegoat

When there’s no one else to blame

 

It’s an old game

Use them and abuse them

Like cattle on the range

Until the crops have been gathered

And the harvest is all done

Round em up and head em out

Until next year … 

 

The Border

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: IMMIGRATION

The Border

 

They had a chance to defend the border

They chose a spectacle instead

They impeached a civil servant

Turning justice on its head

 

They take their people for fools

Who believe anything they’re told

They think obstinance will rule

But their act is getting old

 

They did nothing for the border

Just to give their boss a chance

They push for chaos and disorder

Every time they take a stance

 

This is the way they’ll govern

They will not do anything

When an election rolls around

They’ll do a dance and sing

 

We hate them just like you do

Nothing else really matters

The rich are getting richer

Fat cats are getting fatter