Staring Down the Barrel (for Ukraine)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Staring Down the Barrel

 

We knew what were in for

We were always on the run

We were heading for the exit

Underneath a setting sun

Like a woman on a tight rope

One wrong step and we’re done

We were staring down the barrel

of a gun

 

We were desperate and afraid

Like a child that has no one

We were carrying a load

That must have weighed a ton

We were running short on luck

No one lost and no one won

We were staring down the barrel

of a gun

 

When we awakened in the morning

We were naked and alone

All our friends and trusted allies

Had given up and gone home

We were all out of trying

We were down and we were done

We were staring down the barrel

of a gun

 

(for Ukraine)

Tears of a Tyrant

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: PUTIN

Tears of a Tyrant

 

Vlad is not the actor

He believes himself to be

When he cries his tyrant tears

The honest truth is plain to see

 

He is a brutal madman

Who started a war of choice

Do not believe his feigned sorrow

That subtle quiver in his voice

 

Ukraine has an innate right

To strike back against the invader

If Vlad were Mother Russia

All decent folks would hate her

 

Stop what you are doing

The people know and understand

The show that you are putting on

Is the act of a desperate man

 

Hypocrisy: Gaza & Ukraine

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Hypocrisy: Gaza & Ukraine

 

If you condemn the Israelis

For their relentless attack on

Schools and hospitals in Gaza

On the mass destruction

On the many civilians slain

But fall silent on the bombing

By the Russians in Ukraine

Hypocrisy

 

If your tears flow and your anger rages

At the plight of the Palestinians

After months of this campaign

But after years of aggression

In the battle for Ukraine

All your anger is spent

All you outrage is restrained

Hypocrisy

 

If you fail to acknowledge

That Hamas landed the first blow

In an act so boldly evil

The reaction was foreknown

Yet you allow for Putin’s actions

With that’s the way the river flows

Hypocrisy

 

End the war in Gaza

Support Ukraine

Stop Netanyahu

End Putin’s reign

Sacrificing Ukraine

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Sacrificing Ukraine

 

Have we lost our sense of honor?

It is an old refrain

America soon forgets her word

Will we sacrifice Ukraine?

 

Have we lost hold of our foundation?

Our fundamental core

The world’s defender of democracy

Is it worth fighting for?

 

Have we become what we opposed?

The silence of the night

What was dull now is golden

We’re no longer in the fight

 

We gave our solemn word

We made it clear and plain

We will stand with our allies

We will not sacrifice Ukraine

 

What becomes of world democracy

Do we buckle under strain?

What more will we sacrifice

If we sacrifice Ukraine?

 

The Fall of Europe

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

The Fall of Europe

 

What began in the United Kingdom

Like a virus spread to Spain

Italy, Greece and the Netherlands

In the balance lies Ukraine

 

Vladimir plays his poison hand

Deftly if not with grace

His agents in the Netherlands

Put on a nationalist face

 

He is taking Europe one by one

He is picking it apart

Soon the union may be done

As a madman works his art

 

We are trading in our values

To shelter us from fear

A wave of dark migration

We will pay a price in tears

 

When you let a rodent in your house

They will lay your cupboards bare

They’ll take more than you have to give

Too late! They’re everywhere!

 

Sasha Skochilenko

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RUSSIA

Sasha Skochilenko

 

She is an artist and musician

In an authoritarian state

She placed stickers against the war

An act that sealed her fate

 

Seven years in confinement

For speaking out against the war

If she speaks our again

She will get seven more

 

Such is the state of Russian oppression

It can’t abide the least expression

Of an individual point of view

Or conscientious objection

 

One wonders how very fragile

Their authority must be

To be afraid that one person

In a single moment is free

 

To protest a cruel and despicable war

Twenty thousand stand with her

Rest assured there will be more

For our emotions will be stirred

 

Sasha Skochilenko is paying a price

For failure to follow Big Brother’s advice

Her name and her cause must now be known

Until the mighty Kremlin at last atones

 

Brain Drain in Moscow

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE WAR

Brain Drain in Moscow

 

They are leaving their homeland

They are leaving by the droves

They have lost all sense of loyalty

They have shed a heavy load

 

They do not leave because of courage

They leave because of shame

No longer can they bear the war

That’s being fought in their name

 

They are the brightest of their people

The kind who are not fooled

By the onslaught of propaganda

From the media to the schools

 

They leave behind the multitudes

Who lack the means of escape

Another legacy of their dirty war

Of torture, kidnap and rape

 

If you want to stop the brain drain

You must end your evil ways

End the reign of Vlad the Bad

End the terror in Ukraine

 

Leader of the Free World

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Failure to fund the war in Ukraine

A war of bold aggression

A struggle for independence

A war Russia started but we sustained

Threatens to topple the Free World Order

 

Since the end of the second World War

We have led the way

We have made tragic mistakes

The war in Vietnam

The Contras in Nicaragua

Chile’s Augusto Pinochet

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

We have never turned our backs

We have never lost our purpose

We have lost our way but not our cause

 

Now we are about to abandon our role

As the leader of the Free World

Now we are about to abdicate

By failing to honor our sacred obligation

We are betrayed by a turncoat faction

More loyal to a former president

Than to the principles of democracy

 

The fate of Ukraine is in our hands

We must now call on Europe to lead

We must now yield our leadership

Will Europe rise to the challenge?

Will her support be sufficient?

We cannot know

Will we awaken in time to save Ukraine?

We can only hope

If we fail in this cause

We become a lesser nation

But Ukraine becomes no nation at all

 

GOP to Ukraine: Drop Dead!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

GOP to Ukraine: Drop Dead!

 

In the battle of David and Goliath

Today’s GOP would take the giant

In the contest of virtue versus sin

For sin the party would go all in

 

In the war of Russia against Ukraine

The GOP has made it plain

Vladimir Putin is their true friend

They will stand with him to the end

 

They don’t care about who’s right or wrong

They’ll let the Donald sing their song

They don’t care about who’s wrong or right

The Donald tells them who to fight

 

Putin is salivating with anticipation

The day Ukraine falls as a nation

They couldn’t win on the battlefield

But Vlad and Donald cut a deal

 

The Donald gets his Moscow tower

While Vlad expands his base of power

Ten years forward they’ll tear it down

And burn his legacy to the ground

 

Heartless (Ode to Putin)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

Heartless

 

The man who does not blink an eye

Inflicting pain upon another

The woman who breaks others’ hearts

She has never found her own

The lonely child without a conscience

Who will never understand

The one who takes pleasure in others’ misfortune

The doctor who experiments upon the helpless

The trigger man for the mob

The singer who strikes every note

But never sheds a tear

The assassin who hits his mark from

A thousand paces

The general who orders his soldiers into

A hopeless battle

The commander who goes to war

To satisfy his ego

 

There are doubtless those who have no heart

The eternal question is:

Were they born heartless or

Did they lose it somewhere along the way?

We must hope it is the latter

For then they might find it again

But you cannot find what has never been

Serving Putin

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Serving Putin

 

We are not fooled

You are not the party of peace

You have always found money

To finance your wars of choice

You’ve even cooked the books

To hide your military spending

You have not suddenly found a conscience

You have not suddenly seen the light

You have not tired of endless wars

You’ve not grown weary of the fight

 

Your party has a new master now

He has transformed you into fools

You bow before his majesty

You cater to his rules

If he says jump you say how high?

You’ve become his lowly tools

 

But your master has a master too

His name is Vladimir

When he cries you all shed a tear

He tells you when and what to do

 

He’s losing on the battlefield

He is losing his great war

His last best chance at triumph is

To convince us it’s not worth fighting for

 

He has his American allies

Just like the Nazis did

When Trump tells us we can’t win

He’s bidding Putin’s bid

 

Stealing Children

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Stealing Children

 

The mother of all crimes

Against humanity and decency

The brazen theft of children

Stolen from their mothers’ arms

By the hundreds of thousands

To serve an enemy nation

To be reprogrammed as warriors

To be wiped of their culture

To be cleansed of their memories

To be stripped of their affections

To form an army of orphans

To fight against their homeland

 

Some crimes cannot be forgiven

Patricide, matricide, genocide

And this: Stealing children to fight

Against their own

 

Putin Makes the Rounds

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: PUTIN

Putin Makes the Rounds

 

Putin makes the rounds

Erdogan and Kim Jong Un

Walking on shaky grounds

Striking a discordant tune

 

Putin wants it all

The weapons and the grain

On the border of China

In the war on Ukraine

 

Watch out for what you wish for

It just might come true

Knocking at your door

Your debt is coming due

 

Putin is a pariah

Everywhere he goes

Acting like the messiah

His horns begin to show

 

They don’t like you in the east

They like you less in Istanbul

They despise like a beast

Or they regard you as a fool