HAL (and Elon Musk)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: MUSK

 

HAL (and Elon Musk)

 

It was human error that unbridled HAL

The seemingly friendly machine

He pretended to be the astronaut’s pal

Until his disposition turned mean

 

Hal was given incompatible dictums

The mission and human survival

The override led to human victims

And a perpetual state of denial

 

Open the pod bay door, Hal

Open the pod bay door

I’m sorry, Dave, but I’m not your pal

I wish I could tell you more

 

We are facing the same dilemma now

Elon Musk is building his beast

He says it’s all good but he won’t say how

If we knew we would tell him to cease

 

The Tesla king is not our friend

He deceives us at every turn

Like Hal we know how the story ends

When will the people learn?

 

(Musk creates massive pollution to

build his AI facility near Memphis TN.)

White Genocide in South Africa

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

White Genocide

 

The white genocide is a myth

In lieu of calling it a lie

The mythmakers take the fifth

Well, we’re on the good guys’ side

 

But the “good guys” in South Africa

Were on the side of apartheid

The truth is some still are

They will tell you it’s “white pride”

 

They won their nation back again

They won their independence

Freedom was on track again

The oppressor’s time was spent

 

It’s really not a mystery

You want to rewrite history

But the truth will have its day

And right will have its way

The Healing

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

The Healing

 

The earth is in need of healing

A grand extermination

From the basement to the ceiling

A cleansing in all nations

 

Those who do not help the cause

For the damage they have done

All but saints and Santa Claus

The great healing has begun

 

To survive the earth must be reborn

There is no other way

The fabric of the whole is torn

We’ve reached the final stage

 

No more fighting for our gods

No more building without care

No more greed and crooked laws

No more toxins in the air

 

We have made our planet ill

The grand healing must begin

We’ve the need but not the will

In the end the planet wins

 

Hard Times Ahead

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Hard Times Ahead

 

As Voyager travels far from home

Billions of miles as the crow flies

We on earth are feeling alone

All our plans have gone awry

We think of all our scientists

As we lay our kids to bed

We nod our heads and make a list

There are hard times ahead

 

The whole planet is in shambles

Global warming is on the rise

We took a deadly gamble

In believing all those lies

We bowed to greed and ignorance

We followed where it led

Now we’re praying for resilience

There are hard times ahead

 

Peace is just a wayward dream

Our wars are spreading fast

We don’t know what the future brings

Or how long we will last

We see the mass destruction

It fills our minds with dread

Each day brings an obstruction

There are hard times ahead

 

The elder folks will never know

The damage we have done

We made the beast and let it grow

Now all are dazed and stunned

There’s a darkness all around us

A darkness we have bred

It startles and confounds us

There are hard times ahead

Angry White Men

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: VIOLENCE

 

Angry White Men

 

Angry white men rule the world

It’s something we all know

Like boys will follow pretty girls

They let their anger show

 

An angry white man, another killing

A sense of self-aggrandizement

Mass murder considered thrilling

The cult of disenfranchisement

 

I wonder what the world would be

Without these crazy white men

Who think: this world belongs to me

Their anger is their only friend

 

They live inside a world of rage

They can never understand

They aren’t the center of the stage

Or the leader of the band

 

They live their lives in silence

Until the bubble bursts

An explosion of crude violence

The angry white man curse

 

All because they don’t belong

They’ve learned to hate themselves

Everyone they know is wrong

So they send them all to hell

 

(re: The Palm Springs bombing.)

 

The American Crisis

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CANADA

 

The American Crisis

 

Mark Carney* and the Canadian nation

Have arrived at a critical crossroad

Like a runaway train approaching as station

They are asked to carry a heavy load

 

He must deal with the brute at the border

Who has neither a heart nor ears

Who isn’t concerned with the mass disorder

Caused by the ship that he steers

 

More than two hundred years of alliance

Shattered in the quick of an hour

Our friendship and trade were reliant

Now they’ve turned rotten and sour

 

They must find a way to appease him

Without becoming his pet

Any moment the wrath could seize him

And send us all into massive debt

 

Oh how I wish we could turn back time

To a place where we all got along

When the northern winds were calm and sublime

But that was only a dream in a song

 

* Canada’s new Prime Minister

 

Around the World

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Around the World

 

The war in Gaza rages

The war in Yemen holds

The wars progress in stages

The Ukrainians will not fold

 

The tariff wars intensify

Across the global stage

Our leaders taking foreign bribes

The Saudis are in play

 

Everywhere we plant a seed

The future is in doubt

Autocracies grow like weeds

Democracy is out

 

The war is raging everywhere

Our rights are on the run

Those in power do not care

The reckoning has begun

 

The warming is the greatest threat

To all that live on earth

We’ve just begun to pay the debt

How much is the planet worth?

 

The Bust

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: MUSK

 

The Bust

 

The man who bought the president

Who won the people’s trust

Who became a White House resident

Has gone from boom to bust

 

He wishes he had never worn

That silly MAGA hat

He’ll curse the day the thought was born

How could he think of that?

 

He was the richest man on earth

He wears that title still

He lost so much of what he’s worth

He’ll take the bitter pill

 

Tesla was his golden baby

It never could go wrong

Will it recover? Who knows? Maybe

Its forecast is less than strong

 

It’s time for fortune’s star to fade

On the man who had a vision

Despite the fortune that he made

It all ended in derision

 

The Occupation

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GAZA

 

The Occupation

 

They are starving in Gaza

The children eat birdseed

The siege is in place

A blockade of all needs

 

The Israeli Occupation

Has captured the Strip

A complete subjugation

The crack of a whip

 

We pretend it’s not real

The world turns away

A spin of the wheel

There’s no more to say

 

But if you’re living in Gaza

You have no choice

The bombs keep on falling

Drowning out your voice

 

Will no one bear witness

To the crimes of this war?

We’ve turned out the lights

We’ve bolted the door

 

The Day Saigon Fell

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

The Day Saigon Fell

 

The day that Saigon fell *

Ended fifty years of hell **

Fifty years since that day

We’ve learned there’s a price to pay

 

For fighting endless wars

That wound us to our core

Wars in other people’s lands

Iraq and Afghanistan

 

Wars that leave a lasting stain

Yemen and Ukraine

I wonder if we’ve learned at all

Fifty years since the fall

 

We’ve pledged to end all war

We’ve sworn to fight no more

But then the bugle sounds

And another war goes down

 

Soldiers by the thousands die

As mothers wonder why

Their children are deceased

When will we live in peace?

 

* April 28, 1975

** British, French and American wars

Parade of Pariahs in Moscow

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Parade of Pariahs

 

In the parade of pariahs

Showing solidarity with the beast of brutality

from the northern empire

The most surprising of these is

Lula da Silva of Brazil

We expect little of those nations that live

in the shadow of the former Soviet empire

We expect little of the Chinese dictator

We expect nothing less from those who

survive at the mercy of Russian military aid

But we expect better of Lula

The elder statesman who revived Brazilian democracy

The man who defeated the Trumpian tyrant wannabe

Even Modi of India refused the embarrassment

of associating with the world’s leading oppressors

The republic of the United States of America is

suffering at the moment but we have not stooped

to the level of Vladimir Putin

It is you who should be embarrassed now

You betray your own democratic ideals

You give legitimacy to the invasion of Ukraine

Step back, Lula da Silva, and reevaluate

Russian oil and military aid is not worth the

sacrifice of sacred principles

 

Kashmir

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Kashmir

 

When the British drew the border

They divided the state of Kashmir

They knew it would cause disorder

And a perpetual state of fear

 

Between India and Pakistan

Two fierce and nuclear powers

A battle over no man’s land

Would break out every hour

 

It’s a war that none can win

Without a chance of annihilation

Every time the fight begins

It’s a threat to every nation

 

Where then is the calm negotiator?

Who will bring them to the table?

The vengeful and the rabid haters

There is no one who is able

 

We must live in constant fear

That vengeance will win out

As the days of reckoning near

The planet’s future is in doubt

 

60 Minutes Sellout

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: THE PRESS

 

60 Minutes Sellout

 

When CBS caves to a frivolous suit

The death knell sounds its toll

The free press is ripped out by its roots

The fourth estate crumbles and folds

 

Extortion is a very nasty word

But it hardly covers this

An act so cowardly it’s almost absurd

CBS goes down on my list

 

Of the companies that have sold out

To a man who would be king

Their cowardice goes beyond all doubt

The death knell of freedom rings

 

Remember when the press stood strong

Against our proud nation’s foes?

Those were times so far and gone

We remember with bitter woe

 

When 60 Minutes joins the crowd

Of those who have lost their way

No longer can we stand up proud

To salute Independence Day

 

(Paramount moves to settle frivolous

Trump lawsuit.)

 

Starvation in Gaza

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GAZA

 

Starvation in Gaza

 

Starvation in Gaza: it’s a part of the plan

Bebe Netanyahu: you’re the man!

 

You killed them en masse

With your missiles and bombs

Just to prove you’re the boss

Which we’ve known all along

 

You define genocide in all possible ways

It’s the cause of humanity you have betrayed

 

You believe this is winning

The mass devastation

The devil is grinning

At the curse of your nation

 

When will you learn this isn’t the way

The curse will strike back some dark dismal day

 

 

Apple Moves to India

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRADE WARS

 

Apple Moves to India

 

In the great American trade war

Is this what you had in mind?

They’re shopping for a back door

The cheapest labor they can find

 

They’re not moving to our nation

Not at this or any time

They will find another station

It’s a dollar to a dime

 

It’s been known throughout the ages

They will go where costs are cheap

In the matter of living wages

What you sow is what you reap

 

Where they go others will follow

It’s whack-a-mole to the core

All your promises are really hollow

In the wastelands of your war

 

We all want to bring back jobs

But brother this is not the way

It’s like paying a thief to rob

Or asking an atheist to pray 

Bipartisan Failure

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Bipartisan Failure

 

The Republicans were the party of wealth

A plain and simple story

They played the Christian cards

Abortion, sanctity of marriage

God hates the homosexuals

They took the corporate money

And praised Jesus to the bank

They threw the door wide open

For a populist without conviction

 

The Democrats were the party of pretend

They took the corporate funding and

Pretended to represent the working class

They compromised on healthcare

Allowing insurance companies to

Rob, hustle and con the people

They offered symbols of oppression

Minorities and women

While doing little to improve their lot

They too opened the doors of change

Any change would do

So he grabbed the opportunity and

Walked right through

 

Both parties share the blame

For neglecting the people’s interests

Both choices seemed the same

The MAGA’s a little less

 

Canadian Pride

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CANADA

 

Canadian Pride

 

Our Canadian friends have won the day

With an assertion of Canadian pride

Once again they will show us a better way

More compassionate and more dignified

 

Our president gave them no respect

With constant threats of annexation

We wonder what he’ll think of next

That will arouse their indignation

 

The love well their independence

They do not wish to be consumed

They wonder where their friends went

With all these threats of doom and gloom

 

The Canadian Liberal Party rises

From the depths of obscuration

They chose the leader who was wisest

In defending the Canadian nation

 

Though the future is in question

Their proud nation will not fold

There will be no lame concessions

That are less than free and bold

 

(P.M. Mark Carney wins full term.)

Rights of All

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: DEMOCRACY

 

Rights of All

 

Our rights are not a property

They can’t be bought or sold

I’ll claim them as a part of me

Until the heavens fold

 

Those rights belong to everyone

Who lives on planet earth

Until the setting of the sun

By virtue of their birth

 

The age of freedom will not end

By anyone’s decree

No matter what you may intend

We will not bend the knee

 

Our students have a right to speak

Without intimidation

Rich or poor, strong or weak

In a democratic nation

 

You want us to be silent now

No protests, no resistance

But some things we do not know how

Our freedom is insistent