October 7

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ISRAEL AT WAR

October 7

 

Before October 7

Young people filled the streets of Tel Aviv

Every day and every night

Protesting the anti-democratic laws

And hardline policies

Of their warlord prime minister

 

Before October 7

The people on the streets of Tel Aviv

Were the future of Israel

The young were the people of peace

They believed in fair representation

They believed in equal rights

They believed in an independent

Palestine

 

On October 7

Hamas pointed its deadly force directly

At the young people of Israel

Hamas attacked a gathering of music

And celebration

Hamas killed hundreds of young Israelis

Hamas killed the future of Palestine

 

After October 7

There can be no peace

For as long as the sun will shine

For as long as the rivers flow

For as long as lovers love

For as long as the moon will glow

There can be no peace

 

Across the great divide

I hear your voice saying

There was no other way

But there is always another way

You could have joined the young

Israelis on the streets of protest

You could have joined your voices to theirs

You could have made your voices heard

You could have demanded change

To Netanyahu you could have said:

No! No more

 

After October 7

You have no voice

Hamas has stolen it away

All that remains is endless sorrow

 

Orwell

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WAR

Orwell

 

We’re expanding the war

To keep the war from expanding

The commander saw no wry humor

No sense of contradiction in his statement

We’re increasing the bombardment

To bring peace to the region

Orwell would be proud

 

The war will end when

We have defeated the enemy

When we have defeated the enemy

The war will come to an end

This is the way of war in the 21^st century

We fight until there’s no one left to fight

We destroy the enemy head to toe

We yank him out by the roots

 

Yes innocent people will die

Yes civilians will suffer mass casualties

In modern warfare there is no alternative

The enemy uses its people as shields

But in the end they will thank us

In the end they will call us liberators

The commander saw no irony

No sense of the absurd in his statements

Until a reporter finally asked:

How can dead people thank you?

How can ghosts greet you as liberators?

 

The commander had no more to say

He turned on his heels and walked away

War is peace, said Orwell from his grave

War is peace and the dead cannot be saved

The Creature of the Deep

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

The Creature of the Deep

 

There is a creature that dwells in sleep

With tentacles long and many

As many as are necessary

In the moment of deep, deep sleep

Its tentacle reach out in all directions

Taking hold of every sleeping soul

In that instant we are all connected

Each of us knows what every other thinks

Each of us feels what every other feels

Each of us understands we are one

 

The Israeli feels what the Palestinian feels

The Russian sees what the Ukrainian sees

The Islamist understands the Hindi

The Christian understands the Buddhist

The deist understands the atheist

The saint understands the bigot

Each of us understands the other

 

When we are in that deep cave of sleep

We are naked and everywhere

When we climb out of that deep cave

We clothe ourselves with prejudice

We clothe ourselves with bigotry and hate

We don the cloth of closed minds

That we may thrive among our people

 

Yet at moments of silent clarity

When all is quiet in the soul

We remember the creature of the deep

We remember that instant of knowing

We remember that we are one with all

And all are one within

Plight of the Dispossessed

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ISRAEL & PALESTINE

Plight of the Dispossessed

 

As we enter the days of propaganda

That accompany every war

Remember the plight of the dispossessed

Like the Israelis were before

 

The people are very much the same

No matter where they are

They only want to live in peace

Though they pray to a different star

 

There once was a land called Palestine

That was supplanted by Israel

If you want to know the whole truth

Ah the stories they could tell

 

Of an enemy that has no mercy

That kills the innocent without regret

They would testify their suffering

And the river of blood they let

 

The Israelis have their own accounts

Of being killed and moved aside

They bear witness to an evil

That gave birth to genocide

 

Human

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ISRAEL AT WAR

Human

 

Are we not human?

Do we not bleed?

In the name of humanity

Have mercy we plead

 

It is a time of grave danger

The cry of vengeance is loudest

Near the heart of deep sorrow

And the sorrow builds

Sorrow upon sorrow

Until it is changed to burning rage

And the tears of sorrow

Become tears of pain

And the end of pain is vengeance

 

A child of Palestine

Is a child of the earth

If you possess a heart

You acknowledge his worth

 

But vengeance is a forever thirst

The more you drink

The more thirst you feel

It can never be satiated

It grows and grows in leaps and bounds

It ravages all whom it entices

It replaces the heart with a blackened thing

That poisons all it touches