King of War

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WAR

 

King of War

 

They wouldn’t make me King of Peace

So I’ll be the King of War

Like Vladimir I’ll be the beast

Listen!  Hear me roar!

 

I’ll start off in the Middle East

No one’s done that before

You would not make me King of Peace

So I’ll be the King of War

 

Let’s have a war for Mexico

They haven’t done enough

From Chiapas down to Jalisco

Do not think that it’s a bluff

 

Ask Maduro in Caracas

What he thinks of me now

He went down without a fuss

All he could say was Wow!

 

Cuba’s just across the lake

No one likes them anyway

That would be a piece of cake

The avenger’s on his way

 

Next we’ll conquer Canada

They wouldn’t dare resist

Just like that war in Gren-ada

Let’s put them on the list

 

You all know what’s coming next

Greenland will be mine

It won’t even be complex

We’ll take them by design

 

They’ll all say I’m an awful man

But it wasn’t what I wanted

War was never in my plan

But now my house is haunted

 

Orban on the Ropes

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Orban on the Ropes

 

Viktor Orban of Hungary

Is about to go down in defeat

The vote will end his worthless pleas

To hold on to his seat

 

He did everything a despot can

To hold the vote in check

Abducting all who took a stand

Stacking the electoral deck

 

He suppressed the opposition

But the people somehow knew

They will make their own decision

And then Viktor Orban is through

 

He’s on the ropes and fighting back

Who knows what he may do?

His Dobermans are on attack

His bulldogs and his goons

 

But Hungarians have had their fill

Of Orban’s rank hypocrisy

The people will express their will

Reclaiming their democracy

 

 

War with Iran

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: IRAN

 

Iran War

 

“We wanted help.  We did not want bombs.”

 

Bishop Desmond Tutu

 

Of all the lame things this president has done

War with Iran is the topper of them all

He thinks because we’re bigger, we’ve got

  them on the run

But this is the sound of a desperation call

 

This is not some childish game

Where you remove them from the board

Deflect all sense of blame

And sound the victory chord

 

When you destroy the heads of state

You are left with mass disruption

You’ve condemned them to a fate

Of upheaval and corruption

 

Is that what you had in mind

When you declared yourself supreme?

Your policies are rank and blind

You philosophy is extreme

 

Iran is your last stand

At least let’s hope that is the case

What other horrors have you planned?

What other nightmares have you chased?

 

 

En Fuego

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORRUPTION

 

En Fuego

 

El Mencho is dead

And Mexico is on fire

Jalisco lives in dread

The situation is most dire

 

When you go after the cartels

As Sheinbaum did today

They’ve promised a living hell

Take cover and get out of the way

 

The flames are growing higher

Every hour of every day

They swear they’ll never tire

They will lay it all to waste

 

It’s a war against the night

It keeps coming back for more

Can they ever win this fight?

As the flames of vengeance roar

 

We pray the light will win

What else can we do?

It’s like fighting against sin

In the end the sinners lose

 

On this our hopes depend

For democracy cannot hold

Against corrupt and wicked men

If we give away our souls

 

Things to Do

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP

 

Things to Do

 

Destroy democracy

Make greed good again

Embrace the bold autocracies

Lower women and raise up men

 

Tear down the East Wing

Design a golden ballroom

Put voters on a string

Proclaim a day of doom

 

Deport a million dark skins

Replace the sun with coal

Make sure the white guys win

Ban the daily Gallup poll

 

Rename the Kennedy Center

If they protest close it down

Make sure there are no mentors

Who are not to MAGA bound

 

Hijack an oil tanker

Deliver a nuclear threat

Sign up a virtual banker

Erase the family debt

 

Buy another Nobel Prize

Make Greenland our dependent

Replace the truth with blatant lies

Make the filthy rich ascendant

 

 

Remember Gaza

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GAZA

 

Remember Gaza

 

Gaza is a pile of rubble

With a hundred thousand dead

If you live inside the bubble

There are no more tears to shed

 

There is no peace on the strip

There is only misery

No one is planning a Gaza trip

Except those recording history

 

It is a tragic tale of genocide

That the world has forgotten

The Israelis take it all in stride

The promises that might have been

 

We remember the first attack

It was horrific beyond belief

Yet the horrors fade to black

As the people seek relief

 

They’ve planned a beachside paradise

But there’s something in the way

The Gazans must be sacrificed

Very few of them can stay

 

Epstein's Co-conspirators

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

 

Epstein’s Co-conspirators

 

Where were you, Merritt Garland?

Were you afraid to take a stand?

Or were you Jeffrey Epstein’s darlin’?

A charter member of the band?

 

Where were you old Joe Biden?

Did you decide to take a pass?

When the road to Epstein widened

Did you not know Clinton’s past?

 

Where were you Barack Obama?

Did they keep you in the dark?

So many women witnessed trauma

The evidence is deep and stark

 

How many years did this go on?

How many presidential terms?

How many decades hiding wrong

Would the hidden files confirm?

 

All of you who turned your backs

On the crimes of the elite

Time for you all to face the facts

Let’s turn up the heat

 

Lift the veil of condemnation

Reveal the wicked and the vile

Restore the nation’s reputation

Release all the Epstein files

 

 

Remembering Navalny

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RUSSIA

 

Remember Navalny

 

The evidence is finally in

Though it comes in very late

It was no one but Vladimir Putin

That sealed Navalny’s fate

 

He was in a Russian prison

So there can be no doubt

It was Vladimir’s decision

To take Navalny out

 

Still the struggle rages on

Without an end in sight

But Navalny is gone

So it is a leaderless fight

 

But the people are aware

That their leader is a killer

They are waiting everywhere

The next chapter in this thriller

 

Alexei Navalny is dead

But his spirit still lives on

If we follow out the thread

There may be a new Russian dawn

 

Mourning in Iran

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: IRAN

 

Mourning in Iran

 

If you kill thousands of your people

You do not get to mourn the dead

Beyond the push of the martyrs’ pull

Accept the fury you have bred

 

Blame it on the foreign agitators

Though all the world can see the lie

Blame it on domestic instigators

Blame it on the star-crossed skies

 

Even you can see and smell the truth

When so many have been killed

The rising of an outraged youth

They have expressed their will

 

All the nation is in mourning

For the martyrs you have decried

To all oppressors here’s a warning

History isn’t on your side

 

In time the righteous will prevail

Though it may take a hundred years

In time the oppressors will be jailed

And none will shed a martyr’s tears

 

Workingman Poor

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LABOR

 

Workingman Poor

 

The unions have no power

Losing workers shore to shore

Lower wages by the hour

The working man is poor

 

We can’t afford a living space

Debtors knocking at the door

We’re falling back in every race

For the working man is poor

 

Robotics on the assembly line

Automation in the stores

The oligarchs are more than fine

But the working man is poor

 

Those who need get less and less

Those who don’t get more

The system doesn’t pass the test

When the working man is poor

 

The corporate beast is growing

Good jobs are getting rare

The economy is slowing

But the wealthy grab their share

 

Impunity

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Impunity

 

“Nothing’s more dangerous than

power with impunity.” 

 

Isabel Allende, Portrait in Sepia

 

 

Nothing speaks of insanity

Nothing could be more extreme

Than a president with impunity

Decreed by the Court Supreme

 

One wonders what they were thinking

On that misbegotten day

When the ship of state was sinking

And they helped it on its way

 

They gifted him immunity

The people did not have a say

They assured enduring disunity

For as long as he would stay

 

So now he’ll stay forever

He will never leave the house

He’s pulling each and every lever

To get his forces armed and roused

 

ICE is his gestapo

Brown Shirts and the Guard

We don’t know where it goes

But we’re sure it goes down hard

 

Our democracy is at stake

She is trembling with desperate fear

Her defenders better stay awake

Or the end times will be here

 

 

Tumbler Ridge

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CANADA

 

Tumbler Ridge

 

Below the border it would not be news

Or rather it would not be shocking

We line them up and light a fuse

And we spend a few days talking

 

But changes never happen

We don’t operate that way

We wave our hands and wonder when

But the outrage never stays

 

In Canada they feel the pain

It just doesn’t happen here

It puts society under strain

The whole nation sheds a tear

 

The time has come to rein it in

The right to purchase arms

It cannot be the way it’s been

For the risk is too much harm

 

What passed at Tumbler Ridge

Should never be allowed

Maybe they should cross that bridge

And the people should be proud

 

Sanae Takaichi

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Sanae Takaichi

 

Sanae Takaichi of Japan

Has been given a dramatic mandate

She will balance if she can

The nation’s debt against its fate

 

She wants to cut the tax on food

Not a radical proposition

Her defense of Taiwan may seem rude

If you’re a Chinese institution

 

The Japanese demand change

They were tired of being bullied

A reversal of fortune may seem strange

But their dignity was sullied

 

Known for stoic conservatism

Takaichi deserves a chance

To deliver a novel populism

If the working folks advance

 

Managing debt will not be easy

It may require sacrifice

The results may not be pleasing

But the rich must pay the price

 

 

Luminaries of Peace

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Luminaries of Peace

 

Never has there been

Such a luminous group of men

Dedicated to the cause of peace

From Pakistan to the Middle East

 

They’ve all put up a stake

A pact they’ve promised not to break

From Hungary’s Orban

To Mohammed bin Salman

And Turkey’s infamous Erdogan

From Pakistan’s Zardari to Javier Milei

They take their parts in Donald’s play

 

Did I mention Subianto?

There may be others we don’t know

The notorious MBZ

And bin Hamad the Qatari

And oh yes, Netanyahu

Who has yet to pay his dues

All gather around their chair

The heavyweight with golden hair

 

He is seated in perpetuity

To collect his grand annuities

As he greets them at the door

They will put an end to war

 

 

Trump’s Board of Peace:

Javier Milei, Argentina

Viktor Orban, Hungary

Prabowo Subianto, Indonesia

Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan

Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia

Recep Erdogan, Turkey

Mohamed bin Zayed (MBZ), UAE

Tamom bin Hamad, Qatar

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel