The Next Phase (Resistance)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: DEMOCRACY

The Next Phase (Resist)

 

We approach a turning point

A transition in the struggle

An acceleration in our efforts

Or a fundamental change

A continuation of the battle

Or the start of a new phase

 

What applies in America

Applies equally in Ukraine

As we await the election

We prepare for a change

If it is not as we have hoped

If the unthinkable comes to pass

We begin the resistance

A phase that will last

 

In the battle for democracy

We will take it to the streets

If they strike us down like cattle

We will march to a different beat

We will march in silent protest

We will refuse to move on

We will test the limits of their brutality

We will fold back if necessary

Into the shadows of resistance

And we will resist

 

In the battle for Ukraine

If the unthinkable comes to pass

The Russians and their allies

Become the hated occupiers

Ukraine becomes the resistance

How long can the occupation hold?

The spirit of independence lives

The resistance will not fold

Forever and a day

We will resist

 

Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan

The occupation will fail

 

Forever and a day

We will resist

 

The Day that Shook the World

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

The Day that Shook the World

 

We should have seen it coming

The writing was on the wall

The day that shook the world

May be the day that we fall

 

Europe stands on edge

Ukraine is on the line

NATO is forming contingencies

For a world that is realigned

 

Vladimir Putin wears a smile

That will last until tomorrow

The dictators are in ecstasy

The free world is in sorrow

 

A new age has begun

Filled with worry and despair

The autocrats are in power

And corporations do not care

 

About the warming of the planet

About protecting human rights

About the fall of a republic

We watch it vanish from our sight

 

The Unseen Hand (of Oppression)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

The Unseen Hand

 

The unseen hand of intimidation

Belongs to the brute of the Kremlin

His presence felt in most every nation

Like a force of voting gremlins

 

They promote stories with clever lies

The truth is altered and deformed

They provide their guilty alibies

They invade like a closing storm

 

From Austria to the Slavic states

From Wisconsin to the Hague

The unseen hand has found its place

Like the scourge of a Russian plague

 

Democracy is on the run

Most everywhere we turn

We cannot rest until it’s done

Let the flames of freedom burn

 

Do not give in, do not despair

The alarm has been sounded

We are rallying the free and fair

On the principles that were founded

 

In ancient Greece and modern Rome

The bricks of our foundation

Democracy has found a home

In the best of civilized nations

 

From Russia with Love

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

From Russia with Love

 

The evidence in

And none can be surprised

The radical right firebrands

Are pimping Russian lies

 

You’ve heard them on the X files

Screaming louder than the rest

Spreading Putin’s propaganda

And pounding on their chests

 

They don’t care about the truth

They only care about the money

Meantime Vlad is smirking

Seems he thinks it’s kinda funny

 

If you don’t believe your eyes

If you cannot trust your ears

The Russians have your number

And they’re preying on your fears

 

Now that we know the jig is up

It’s time to realign your thoughts

Who you think is an American

Is absolutely not

 

Trump World

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

Trump World

 

There’s no telling what he might say

The man deteriorates every day

 

In Trump world

Europe is our adversary

Russia is our friend

 

In Trump world

Mothers execute babies after birth

 

In Trump world

Schools turn little boys

Into little girls

 

In Trump world

Criminal migrants swarm the nation

From Colorado to Wisconsin

And no one is safe

 

In Trump world

Win or lose the streets will flow

With the blood of his revenge

 

In Trump world

He is not only God’s messenger

He is God’s holy warrior

God’s right hand of vengeance

 

In Trump world

We are all suspect

Lawyers, operatives, donors, agents

Voters and election officials

We will be sought, caught and prosecuted

To the fullest extent of the law

 

In Trump world

You and I are the enemy

And he vows to take us down

 

Indiscriminate Bombing

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: PUTIN

Indiscriminate Bombing

 

Indiscriminate bombing is a crime against humanity

Putin’s bombing of Ukraine is a testament to insanity

He doesn’t care how many die

How many mothers and fathers cry

He is immune to human emotion

Brutality is his method, cruelty his devotion

He is a monster plain and clear

He rules by ruthlessness and fear

When his war comes to an end

He’ll have no allies and no friends

Except the man at Mar-a-Lago

Whose moral founding is Iago

He will be a wanted man

The world will bind him if we can

And we will try him for his crimes

Among the monsters of all time

 

Hang Your Head (for RFK Jr.)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Hang Your Head

 

I remember Bobby well

He gave the people hope

What a story he would tell

About his son’s descending slope

 

Bobby stood against the war

In a far-off Asian land

His son stands with Putin

As if he ever gave a damn

 

When he takes the stage with Trump

His father rises from his grave

He’s the child who craves attention

We must implore him to behave

 

You stand against your father’s will

So hang your head in shame

To the mountain you are just a hill

You’ve disgraced the family name

 

We won’t remember Bobby

For the evil that you do

For we know that he opposes

All those who stand with you

(RFK Jr. endorses Trump)

The Love Letters

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

The Love Letters

 

Remember those charming love letters

That our (former) president loved so much

Written with boundless affection

With a gentle and giving touch

 

All of you who have spoken ill

Of the man in the Oval Office

Who have blasted your obscenities

From the beds of moving trucks

If we lived under Kim Jong-un

You would find yourself imprisoned

Incapacitated or worse

Condemned to reeducation

Under the cloud of the leader’s curse

 

Remember the brotherly romance

Of our then president and the Vlad

The animosity that we showed him

Made our leader extremely sad

 

All of you who have expressed doubts

About the sanctity of our elections

If we lived under Putin’s rule

Your votes would be cast out

You children would be sent to fight

For the conquest of Ukraine

Your freedom would be compromised

Beyond all recognition

You would find yourself against a wall

In a compromised position

 

Be grateful for what we have

Be careful not to lose it

If democracy is not your bag

We can end it if you choose it

 

Fighting Phantoms

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Fighting Phantoms

 

Wingnuts of the reactionary right

Are fighting phantoms of imagination

Summoning ghosts of the distant past

To save an imaginary nation

 

Their enemies are all communists

Scum of the earthly kind

Like Don Quixote’s windmills

Their myths will soon unwind

 

They’re certain the people are stupid

They’ll believe anything they’re told

But their threats of retribution

Are getting more than a little old

 

You can say the sky is falling

But if you say it more than twice

The people will smell a rat

And their “leaders” will pay a price

 

So tell us again how our freedom

Depends on a new president

Who is sworn to Vladimir Putin

Our confidence is spent

 

Notorious MTG

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Notorious MTG

 

They love her in the Kremlin

She’s as sweet as she could be

Her loyalty is steadfast

The best they’ve ever seen

She puts it on the line

She’s crude, loud and mean

Vladimir says she’s fine

Marjorie Taylor Greene

 

One day she’ll fly to Moscow

To meet her only friend

But he will only laugh at her

With a message he will send:

You were a useful idiot

There is no more to say

No one really likes you

It’s just a game we play

 

So Marjorie is alone now

No one to hold her hand

No one on the phone now

To say they understand

Nobody really cares now

What Marjorie says or does

She’s no longer in the loop

There is no Marjorie buzz

 

316 to 94 (Aid to Ukraine)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

316 – 94

 

The vote on the floor of the House

Ukraine 316, Russia 94

Zelensky 316, Putin 94

Biden 316, Trump 94

 

The vote left no doubt

America is still America

The Putin caucus lost its pull

Crushed by a wave of patriotism

Battered by old-time allegiance

We will not be the reason

The Soviet empire was reborn

The Iron Curtain reforged

The world redivided into us and them

The free world and the oppressed

We will not return to the Cold War

(a war that was never cold)

We will not yield democracy to Europe

Not yet

Not this time

 

We are America and we will not

go down without a fight

We will hold our ground

with a new coalition

A coalition of democrats and republicans

Small d and small r

We will defend our birthright

Our legacy and our ideals

Unite in purpose and cause

 

(House passes foreign aid bill 316-94.)

 

Enemies

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Enemies

 

Our enemies wear many faces

Some poison our water and air

Some despise the darker races

Nearly all pretend they care

 

Netanyahu is an enemy of peace

Elon Musk is an enemy of truth

Vladimir Putin is a villainous beast

We’ll decide in the voting booth

 

There are many who have sold their souls

For some money or a piece of the action

There are many who play lesser roles

Who charade as an angry faction

 

To defeat our true enemies all

We must recognize who they are

One by one we must see them fall

To lift up our virtuous star

Sympathy for the Devil

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP

 

Sympathy for the Devil

 

A man in the oval office

Who fell under Vladimir’s spell

Expresses admiration for Adolf

Paving a dismal road to hell

 

He will surely throw Ukraine under

Taiwan has cause to worry

Russia will charge like rolling thunder

NATO should arm in a hurry

 

One step away from seizing power

A power he will not surrender

Unless we rise in the final hours

The people as the last defender

 

He has sympathy for the devil

And this devil has a name

The dictators of the world unite

The ones who have no shame

 

The Invisible Hand

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

The Invisible Hand

 

We have lost Ukraine

Or we are surely losing

Because our Republicans in congress

No longer feel the pain

They suffer from an invisible hand

Implanted deep within their brains

The hand of their invisible leader

Who himself suffers an invisible hand

Implanted within his brain

 

We are losing every battle

And soon we will lose the war

As the Republicans in congress plead:

  We have given enough already

  We cannot give you more

But the truth is another story

About a cancer in the halls of glory

The hands that pull the purse strings

Have closed the funding door

 

Trump to NATO: Drop Dead!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Trump to NATO: Drop Dead!

 

He doesn’t know our history

And frankly does not care

The future is no mystery

We’re caught in Putin’s lair

If Donald wins the White House

We’d better say our prayers

Before we lay down to our beds

For Trump will say to NATO:

Drop dead!

 

He loves the world’s dictators

From Erdogan to Xi *

He finds them most appealing

As he considers what will be

An American dictator

Would lead a new alliance

Democracies not welcome

A new Europe in defiance

The world will long remember

The day the Donald said:

Dear NATO: Drop Dead!

 

* pronounced She