Germany Steps Up

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

 

Germany Steps Up

 

In the absence of an American ally

To lead in the defense of Ukraine

Chancellor Merz has applied

With a promise of critical aid

 

There will be no limitations

On the range of Ukrainian strikes

Next target the Moscow station

Raining missiles into the night

 

Now Russia reaps what it sows

And Putin takes the blame

He is lost on a lonesome road

That leads to nowhere but shame

 

If this is what is required

To bring Putin to negotiations

Then set the Kremlin on fire

Let them plead for salvation

 

They did not want this fight

But they will surely answer back

They stand firm for what is right

Against a brutal Russian attack

 

Now your people will feel the pain

That proceeds from your dirty war

When there is nothing more to gain

What are you fighting for?

 

 

Appeasing Vlad

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP & PUTIN

 

Appeasing Vlad

 

If you appease a war criminal

In a position of power

You are a war criminal

In his darkest hour

 

If you simply do not care

How many children die

If you are minimally aware

If you have never asked why

 

You’re the one who feeds the beast

You’re the one who lets it pass

You’re the host of the disease

You’re the flag at half mast

 

This war will never end

As long as Vladimir perceives

The Americans are his friends

Their leader will appease

 

The world must be appalled

Ukraine must feel betrayed

The ceasefire talks have stalled

Don’t you know you’re being played?

 

The Martyrdom of Darya Kozyreva

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: PUTIN'S RUSSIA

 

Darya

 

Darya Kozyreva is nineteen

She loves poetry and yearns for freedom

Darya Kozyreva will spend three years

in the gulag for poetic dissidence

 

She pasted a verse from a Ukrainian poet *

on his statue in St Petersburg Square:

 

O bury me, then rise ye up

And break your heavy chains

And water with the tyrant’s blood

The freedom you have gained

 

It did not use the tyrant’s name

It did not need to

It didn’t mention the war in Ukraine

It was self-evident

 

Darya Kozyreva was a known dissident

Now she is a known hero

She valued truth over her own freedom

She felt the suffering of her Ukrainian friends

She refused to remain silent

 

She is one of hundreds in Russian jails

For speaking out against their president

For speaking out against his dirty war

 

In America we do not imprison dissidents

We detain and deport foreign students

For writing anti-Israeli editorials

 

In America we find more creative ways

to punish those who criticize the president

and his oppressive policies

 

We are not Russia but we are on the path

that Putin laid out before us

where dissent is outlawed

and public protest is treason

where even listening to an opposing view

is a punishable offense

 

* Taras Shevchenko

Open Letter to the Russian People

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RUSSIA

 

Open Letter

 

People of Russia I humbly speak

I appeal to your humanity

If peace is what you seek

Do not yield to your vanity

Don’t believe that we are weak

 

You are not your dark leader

We are not the same as ours

In a forest of hard cedar

We have both built our towers

We have listened to deceivers

 

But we do not desire war

Despite all you might have heard

When you knock upon our door

We will hear your honest word

And we will travel to your shore

 

As for the matter of Ukraine

We believe in basic rights

Let us make it very plain

We do not believe in might

We will not embrace the pain

 

We believe in sharing views

We believe in compromise

Let us walk in common shoes

Let us form more common ties

If we fail both sides will lose

 

For the world and for ourselves

We must end this bitter hate

Put our differences on the shelf

Let us forge a better fate

Let’s regard each other well

Broken Promise

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP & PUTIN

 

Broken Promise

 

He promised to end the war

With fairness, honor and dignity

Instead his clumsy White House roar

Called for surrender without indemnity

 

If you don’t intend to keep your word

Let it be behind closed doors

For now all the world has heard

Your betrayal on the war

 

You are a Putin underling

You answer to his orders

When he snaps his fingers you must sing

Expand the Russian borders

 

You’ve broken this and every other

Promise that you’ve made

For you are Putin’s little brother

The best of plans you’ve laid

 

To redraw the world’s geography

The Russian American empires

To write a new biography

To set the world on fire

 

The whole of Europe is alarmed

They will not let this pass

They will not yield to Putin’s charm

Or bow down to the American …

The Blood

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WAR

 

The Blood

 

You called yourself a champion

To the cause of global peace

But the only thing you have accomplished

Is to embolden the beast *

 

You control the air defenses

That block the bombs of war

You may be good at walls and fences

But it’s not working any more

 

Look down upon your bloody hands

The bloody hands of war

While you make your play for foreign lands

You’re creating World War Four *

 

You’ve set the stage for Vladimir

To build his bloody empire

Our former friends are filled with fear

For a world you’ve set on fire

 

How dare you claim diplomacy

When you’ve set the stage for war

But what you get is what you’ll see

You’re bloody to the core

 

* The beast of war.

* The Cold War was WW III.

 

Flirting with the Swastika

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Flirting with the Swastika

 

You don’t dance with the devil

If you don’t like the heat

You don’t ask for a chair

If you don’t want a seat

 

You don’t joke about the war

Unless you know what for

You don’t curse the house you live in

Unless you’re out the door

 

You don’t wish upon a star

If you do not have a wish

You don’t travel very far

If you only want to fish

 

You don’t sing with the fascists

Unless you’re in the fascist fold

You don’t flirt with a swastika

To pretend that you’re bold

 

Some things just aren’t funny

And some things do not rhyme

You don’t take dirty money

If you only want the time

 

In Bed with Putin

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: PUTIN

 

In Bed with Putin

 

The world condemns Russian aggression

Demands withdrawal from Ukraine

Laments the dictator’s oppression

Yet their protests are in vain

 

Exempted from the world’s opinion

In a measure of disgrace

Are the fascists and their minions

The United States is out of place

 

Our president has made it clear

He despises all democracies

We are on the side of Vladimir

And all the world’s autocracies

 

We’ll pretend it is the cause of peace

As we form a dark alliance

Democracies we’ll value least

As we face the world’s defiance

 

We’re in it for the money now

We will hope that we survive

We’ll watch the NASDAQ and the Dow

For the oligarchs will thrive

 

Zelensky Stands

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

 

Zelensky Stands

 

Our president disgraced himself        

In the vaunted Oval Office

Before the eyes of the world

In full view of the people

A display of cowardly rudeness

For everyone to see

 

Every American who stands against Zelensky

Stands against the sacred vow

Every nation that stands against Ukraine

Stands against freedom and democracy

Every nation that stands with our president

Stands against justice and the rule of law

 

We don’t need to know what Vladimir Putin

Holds over our president

What we have seen in the glaring light

Of public outrage and embarrassment

Is more than sufficient

 

Zelensky is a champion of liberty

Standing up to a powerful despot

That our president chooses to stand

With the despot against democracy

With the dictator against freedom

With the mass murderer against

The defender of Ukrainian sovereignty

Is beyond the bounds of human dignity

 

Every American should be embarrassed

Every European should feel betrayed

Every citizen of the free world

Should be forewarned

 

America is on the wrong side of justice

America is on the wrong side of history

America is on the wrong side of decency

 

As America falls

Zelensky stands

The Opposite of Truth

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP

 

The Opposite of Truth

 

It is one thing to deceive

To deny and obscure the truth

It is another to proclaim the opposite

To describe the elderly as youth

To state the hero of the story

Of Lincoln’s assassination

Was really John Wilkes Booth

 

The confederacy fought for freedom

The union fought for slaves

Those who stood were cowards

And those who ran were brave

Global warming is a fallacy

It is really the Big Freeze

Caused by wind and solar

We can solve it with ease

 

Zelensky is a tyrant

Who wanted this brutal war

Vladimir Putin is a hero

Who pays tribute to the poor

White people are oppressed

Black people live in ease

There’s no such thing as covid

Or any other strange disease

 

Triumvirate of Fear

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

 

Triumvirate of Fear

 

Russia invaded a peaceful nation

Without the slightest cause

They didn’t bother with invocation

Of international laws

 

Putin tipped the old world order

With an act of aggressive war

A violation of sovereign borders

The monster at the door

 

We answered Ukraine’s desperate call

For help in time of need

Now we’ll witness Ukraine’s fall

As Putin take the lead

 

We cannot be the least surprised

We saw this horror coming

We warned the people far and wide

We witnessed the great dumbing

 

Putin, Trump and Elon Musk

A triumvirate of fear

The blood will flow from dawn to dusk

Their intentions are quite clear

 

British Boots on Ukrainian Soil

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

 

British Boots on Ukrainian Soil

 

Filling the void that America left

They offer boots on the ground

In answer to Putin’s bloody theft

To Ukraine the British are bound

 

So which side will America take

When it’s Europe allied with Ukraine

Against the leader all forsake

Our loyalties are less than plain

 

We know that he and Putin are close

They act as if they’re brothers

Will he choose the hand of Vladimir

In cold defiance of all others?

 

Our president’s made it very clear

He despises all on Europe’s soil

While he holds his fellows very dear

He’s enthralled with Putin’s oil

 

So when it comes to Ukraine’s freedom

He will not reveal his hand

He’ll throw out fits of obscenities

But he will not take a stand

 

(Britain does not rule out boots

on the ground in Ukraine.)

 

You Own It (Don't Complain)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP

 

You Own It (Don’t Complain)

 

Hyperinflation fed by tariffs

An acute shortage of farm workers

An outbreak of bird flu

A loss of worker gains

You voted for it

You own it

Don’t complain

 

The annexation of Georgia

The rise of dictatorship

The decline of democracy

The end of Ukraine

You voted for it

You own it

Don’t complain

 

Chains of hurricanes

Storms of mass destruction

The collapse of coastal cities

Flood and fire uncontained

You voted for it

You own it

Don’t complain

 

You may not care about immigrants

You may not care about free speech

You may not care about voting rights

But you all will feel the pain

You voted for it

You own it

Don’t complain

 

The Fate of Ukraine

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

The Fate of Ukraine

 

The fate of Ukraine is in our hands

So many people have died

So much violence and bloodshed

For the sake of one man’s pride

 

We know this war must someday end

That day is coming soon

Ukraine will lose its strongest friend

The waning of the moon

 

They will leave a trail of brutality

The armies of the north

A bitter cruel reality

They’ve marked a tragic course

 

A proud and sovereign nation

Has paid a price in blood

In a war of deprivation

The stream became a flood

 

The invader on his bloody horse

The Kremlin’s mighty fist

If fate would hold its brutal course

Ukraine will not exist

 

Putin: Without Restraint

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Putin: Without Restraint

 

Bombing without restrictions

Killing without restraint

Killing journalists and children

They will hear no complaints

 

Kiev is in tatters

Ukraine is bombed to shreds

Putin does not care

How many families are dead

 

There’s a new sheriff coming

He will arrive in several weeks

Kill as many as you can

You can’t be seen as weak

 

They are killing throughout Kharkiv

Luhansk is laid to waste

Any chance of lasting peace

Will be lost in Putin’s haste

 

To slaughter all their enemies

To alienate their friends

To kill with full abandon

Before the war can end

 

Tulsi Gabbard

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

Tulsi (Fox in the Henhouse)

 

The fox is guarding the henhouse

The hens are running scared

The cat has cornered the mouse

Betray her if you dare

 

She is on Putin’s payroll

We’ve long known it is so

She delivers Russian talking points

On all the rightwing shows

 

Now Tulsi holds the keys

To all our secrets and our plans

Our weapons and our strategies

And where we’ll make a stand

 

If that doesn’t give you pause

You’ve lost all sense of reason

What she will do despite our laws

Will tempt a charge of treason

 

I do hope that I am wrong

But I fear that I am right

She will sing a Russian song

And she will fight the Russian fight

 

(Tulsi Gabbard announced as

Trumps choice for Director of

National Intelligence.)

 

Putin's Gamble

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: PUTIN

Putin’s Gamble

 

What he could not accomplish

on the battlefields of Ukraine

He has accomplished on the

stage of American politics

 

Where he could not succeed

in France or the Netherlands

He has triumphed in the vast

open plains and the industrial

Midwest and the deep southern

forests of America

 

He gambled it all

on the wickedly flawed

American electoral laws

 

He gambled it all

on a conman from Queens

with his propaganda machine

 

The whole world will attest

Putin won the west

and with it he won Ukraine