The Dawning

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICA

 

The Dawning

 

A thousand years of rage

Sorrow guilt and accusation

Vanished in the dawning age

The birth of a new nation

 

And we are like our country

We were founded on ideals

A dream we could not reach

And how it made us feel

 

A burden lifted from our shoulders

We no longer need to fight

We have found as we grow older

We can keep the dream in sight

 

All this in one election

That must now be sustained

No backsteps and no defections

It cannot have been in vain

 

For the dawning is a blessing

To all who gave their vow

Who learned that long hard lesson

The time for change is now

 

Let freedom ring across the land

Let there be a celebration

Strike up those famous marching bands

For the dawning of our nation

 

Hottest Year (Again)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

Hottest Year (Again)

 

It is the hottest year on record

Not a record we desire

It is one we can’t afford

The droughts, the storms, the fires

 

Are we beginning to take note

Or do we place it in the file

Of the things we never wrote

Are we going out in style?

 

Another year of the great warming

Or pretending it’s not here

Of grifting and of warring

Another ship we didn’t steer

 

It is an existential question

That’s something we should know

We have failed to make connections

While the crisis only grows

 

I know it’s hard to pay attention

When it isn’t on your table

I know we’re hoping for inventions

That will make the climate stable

 

If we’re banking on the latter

We should place a bet on science

We should raise a cry that shatters

But all we hear is silence

 

Please say it isn’t so

That we care about the earth

Tell me something I don’t know

For whatever it is worth

 

Madman in Krakow

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: MASS SHOOTINGS

 

Madman in Krakow

 

A madman in Krakow

Who found home in the extreme

A shot off the bow

To fulfill a warped dream

 

How many must die

Before we awaken?

That dream is a lie

That has been forsaken

 

Like a man on a mission

He shot to kill

To whom he would listen

He hadn’t the will

 

It seems no one is safe

From the scourge of all nations

We are frozen in place

We can find no salvation

 

A killer will kill

A liar will lie

We cannot hold still

While our people die

 

Is there no solution

To this outbreak of violence?

Propaganda pollution

Breaks through our silence

 

Take away the guns

Teach your children to love

Beneath the rays of the sun

Seek help from above

 

 

Commutation (Death Penalty)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

 

Commutation

 

California ended the death sentence

In an act of commutation

While it falls short of full repentance

California leads the nation

 

A government should not kill

As a punishment for crime

It goes against our higher will

It belongs to long lost times

 

When once we needed vengeance

To fulfill our sense of justice

That thought was always bent

When we governed with a fist

 

We know it does not deter

The ones who wish to kill

Though the passions it may stir

Just might provide a thrill

 

There once were executions

Performed like passion plays

They were thought to be solutions

But we don’t think that today

 

We have no other interest

But to protect and to serve

This is not the Wild West

Where they got what they deserved

 

We are better than we were

More civil and humane

We should honor the higher word

Not bear the mark of Cain

 

(Governor Newsom commutes

sentences of prisoners on death row.)

 

Desperate Times

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Desperate Times

 

Desperate times in France

And across the European states

The French have made their stance

We will now await their fate

 

Desperate times in Israel

They may lose American aid

The threat is growing real

They are in the mess they made

 

Desperate times in Ukraine

The Putin-Trump alliance

Support begins to wane

As well as our reliance

 

Desperate times in Iran

Trump may blow a fuse

Until he’s finally gone

We don’t know what he’ll do

 

Desperate times in the Kremlin

Their chief ally took a hit

They are overrun with gremlins

They are falling down a pit

 

Desperate times in the Arab states

They cannot control the oil

They are tied up in the Straits

Taking missiles on their soil

 

Desperate times in the world

The markets are unstable

Trade deals come unfurled

The powers are disabled

 

When the system starts to crumble

Every nation is engaged

All economies will stumble

And the people grow enraged

 

We need to find a common ground

To buffer our economies

Rethink the factors that unwound

Heal the earth’s disease

 

A New Dawn

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICA

 

A New Dawn

 

A wave of optimism

Has swept across the land

We have closed the great schism

That was created by one man

 

It’s a new dawn

It’s a new day

The morning finally comes

It’s a new song

It’s a new way

Wave the flag and bang the drum

 

The way of war and terror

Is fading into black

The greed and vengeful era

Let’s hope it’s never coming back

 

It’s a new dawn

It’s a new day

The age of the grift is gone

It was so wrong

Now it’s pay day

It’s the end of the reign of Don

 

The nation’s nightmare ends

The dream has just begun

We’ve overcome ourselves again

The side of right has won

 

 

The Wave

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

The Wave

 

A wave as blue as a clear blue sky

As vast as the ocean blue

A wave that leaves them wondering why

The wave we wished came true

 

The early returns were promising

Virginia and South Carolina

The forecast calls for a senate swing

The prospects could not be finer

 

It rolled from east to west

From Atlanta to Chicago

Ohio was the first great test

The night the blue wave rolled

 

Austin Texas here we come

The greatest hope will rise

The preacher and the crooked bum

Let’s hear the alibis

 

California to Alaska

Colorado to Lake Michigan

The wave is rolling faster

The opposition party has won

 

Now the work begins

He is still the president

It is not enough to win

But the message has been sent

 

Arab Israelis

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ISRAEL

 

Arab Israelis

 

The Arab Israelis hold the key

To the future of the Israeli state

Equal status for all citizenry

Reject Hamas to ensure its fate

 

What Hamas was it ceased to be

With the attack that fateful day

To move on the Arab parties must lead

We can see no other way

 

An Israeli Arab partnership

To form a peaceful Jewish state

That could rebuild the Gaza Strip

How long must the world wait?

 

The dream of independent nations

Has drifted far from possible

It’s hard to live in segregation

Resolution seems improbable

 

We must reconsider everything

As reasoned people often do

When peace is balanced on a string

It may be time for something new

 

It begins with coexistence

With Israeli Arab representation

An end to stubborn Likud resistance

A new and safer Israeli nation

 

Peaceful Protest (Europe)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: PROTEST

 

Peaceful Protest

 

Peaceful protest is at the heart

Of every democratic government

It was declared from the start

To be certain and self-evident

 

Along with freedom of speech

And freedom of the press

A right no government should breach

As a most fundamental test

 

From Portugal to Spain

To Belgium, Denmark, Ukraine

The people own the streets

Our founders made it plain

 

So when the people march

To exercise their rights

To express what’s in their hearts

Do not challenge them to fight

 

There may be troublemakers

Just shuffle them aside

There are always instigators

They go along for the ride

 

Protect the right to protest

As a fundamental creed

Let the dictators oppress

Do not follow where they lead

 

The Swamp

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP

 

The Swamp

 

He promised to drain the swamp

It turns out he didn’t mean it

He was too busy reading Mein Kamph

He did not intend to clean it

 

He is the swamp creature

He brought the grift and the con

His presidency has featured

Corruption from dusk to dawn

 

He has tried to bribe whole nations

Bending leaders to his will

From contracts for deportation

To weapons that boost the kill

 

In two hundred and fifty years

No one has taken more

The more we see, the more it appears

They’re renting the White House doors

 

If you think this is the norm

You had better reconsider

Through every crisis and every storm

They will sell to the highest bidder

 

Myanmar Junta

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

Myanmar Junta

 

Sham elections in Myanmar

Seal its status as a rogue state

The oppression has gone too far

Their civil war is in stalemate

 

With Chinese and Russian aid

The junta has barely survived

The resistance will not fade

As long as free will is alive

 

One hundred thousand dead

Five million are displaced

The streets have turned red

This junta is disgraced

 

The free world must take sides

Though America is absent

This killing we can’t abide

Too many lives are spent

 

Crimes against the human race

Are a challenge to us all

This suffering has no place

The state oppressors must fall

 

I do not argue for war

It is balanced trade I advocate

The despotic must pay more

Than the democratic states

 

Israeli Democracy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ISRAEL

  

Israeli Democracy

 

When the Prime Minister rails

Against twenty percent of the population

Israeli democracy fails

So goes the Israeli nation

 

If working with the Arab minority

Is a cause for calling treason

It’s the tyranny of the majority

In defiance of all reason

 

The Israeli people have spoken

In a clear decisive voice

The parliamentary system is broken

If it denies the people’s choice

 

It is time for Netanyahu

To ride off into the sunset

What more damage can he do?

What greater moral debt?

 

He has led the cause of vengeance

In the name of law and order

All good will has been spent

He did not secure the border

 

If there is any chance for peace

There must be a place for all

If the people’s will governs least

Then the government must fall

Viva Lula! Viva Brazil!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LATIN AMERICA

 

Viva Lula! Viva Brazil!

 

In a comeback for the ages

Lula da Silva regains Brazil

He won it progressive stages

Of Bolsonaro they had their fill

 

Flavio could not handle the loss

His protests smell of sour grapes

Brazilians would not pay the cost

Of handing him the ship of state

 

The people rose to Lula’s cause

They know his heart is true

He’s not to blame for global loss

There was little he could do

 

Except to stand his ground

For the workers and the poor

His policies were always sound

He is centered to the core

 

Brazil will find her feet again

With Lula at the helm

Greater than it’s ever been

The leader of his realm

 

We wish we could have been there

When Lula claimed his prize

An election free and fair

The look in Bolsonaro’s eyes

 

Viva Lula! Viva Brazil!