Winning our Nation Back

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

 

Winning our Nation Back

 

Remember who you voted for?

Is this what you demanded?

We ought to show you to the door

You should be reprimanded

 

Soldiers on the city streets

A steady increase in inflation

Scorn for everyone you meet

An authoritarian nation

 

They’re ruling with an iron fist

There is no law and order

We’re breathing in a toxic mist

Fixation on the border

 

They’re finding ways to fix the vote

To steal the next election

They’re hiding guns beneath their coats

It’s heading that direction

 

If you want to take our country back

Please know it won’t be easy

Their train is sliding off the tracks

They’re brutal and they’re sleezy

 

So get ready for a vicious fight

They will go to any measure

They don’t believe in doing right

Brutality gives them pleasure

 

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 Cycle

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: MASS SHOOTINGS

 

The Cycle

 

Killing children in Minneapolis

The vicious cycle repeats

The cycle of the irrational

The cycle is never complete

 

Killing children in Gaza

The cycle of killing goes on

The deliberate killing of journalists

The infinite cycle of wrong

 

The cycle of endless violence

We hear the tired voices

Calls for prayer, moments of silence

We’re left without any choices

 

We pray to the second amendment

To protect us from all harm

With guns we live in contentment

While we fail to raise alarm

 

The cycle goes on forever

As we live in a world of hate

If the right to arms is revered

The cycle is our fate

 

Lowering Crime in New Orleans

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

 

Lowering Crime in New Orleans

 

The murder rate is down

Violent crime? The same

Crime is lower all around

There’s no one left to blame

 

How did this miracle happen?

Did they summon the National Guard?

It happened in the way back when

Katrina slammed N’Orleans hard

 

The poor folk of the Big Easy

Were scattered far and wide

Few returned to their poverty

Their old haunts were gentrified

 

The Guard was never needed

They spread the crime around

A new way of life was seeded

And planted on higher ground

 

So if you want to change your city

Let New Orleans show the way

Just reinvent it nice and pretty

Let the wealthy come to play

 

Round up all the poor folks

And scatter them around

Laugh like it’s a private joke

Reinvigorate your town

 

 

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

 

Fighting Fire with Fire

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Fighting Fire

 

Texas started this fight

Will we turn the other cheek?

Knowing well it is not right

The fierce against the meek

 

Let’s be very clear

They are devaluing the vote

They very last thing you will hear

Is the sinking of the boat

 

They want to steal the next election

With their gerrymandering plan

They are spreading this infection

Hoping you won’t understand

 

Our democracy is at stake

If we fail to take a stand

Stop the steal, slam the brakes

Send a message across the land

 

You fight this fire with fire

That’s the only way it works

Our republic’s not for hire

To these power-hungry jerks

 

 

Saving Social Security

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

 

Saving Social Security

 

The solutions to the problem of the

Social Security fund

The fund that ensures retirement

For each and everyone

Is not as complicated as politicians say

Just make a simple adjustment

To how much the wealthy pay

 

Extend collections upward

Adjust the payments down

Overnight the fund is solvent

And placed on solid ground

Make it a moving standard

Proportionate to the facts

We’ll call it by a simple name

The Saving Social Security Act

 

The elder folks should never be

Abandoned by the nation

From sea to glorious sea

Let’s offer up salvation

A fund that’s always guaranteed

That never will expire

A simple and eternal seed

When we grow old and retire

 

Police State

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AUTHORITARIANISM

 

Police State

 

Crime in the district is down

Don’t let the facts get in the way

The Guard is coming to town

It’s law and order day

 

The district is not the first

They’ll be coming back to LA

From there it only gets worse

They’re coming to town to stay

 

There’ll be no more demonstrations

No more protests of any kind

Welcome to the police nation

Want a job? Get in line

 

They’ll have your number and your name

They’ll know exactly what you’re up to

The dirty immigrants are to blame

Put em all in an immigrant zoo

 

Your freedoms and your rights?

Just how much do they mean?

The dimming of the light

Among the worst we’ve ever seen

 

True History (revisited)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUE HISTORY

 

True History (revisited)

 

Let’s replace true history

With a tale of American heroism

There isn’t any mystery

But a lot of phony mysticism

 

There were no civilized tribes

When the explorers crossed the sea

There never was a genocide

We let the natives be

 

The Africans were valued guests

They were never made to serve

Their lives were comforting and blessed

They got what they deserved

 

The internment of the Japanese

Was meant to keep them safe

Most of them were very pleased

They learned to know their place

 

Civil Rights came and went

But nothing really changed

All our rights were heaven sent

The protests are deranged

 

America is always right

We’ve never lost a war

We are the keepers of the light

We always lift the poor

 

(Trump orders a reorganization of

the Smithsonian to reflect his image

of American greatness.)

 

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)