Extrajudicial Killing

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN JUSTICE

 

Extrajudicial Killing

 

They announced a major victory

In the war against cartels

They killed eleven on the open sea

Then they rang the victory bell

 

Who among us would dare ask

Where is the evidence?

Were they wearing cartel masks?

Were their narco dollars spent?

 

Do we claim the right to kill

Without just and righteous cause?

Anyone we can and will

Without protection of the law?

 

You tell us they were terrorists

Importing killer drugs

Were their names on the terror list?

Are there photos of their mugs?

 

Is the law not for others?

Are you the ones who will decide?

Justice for one but not another?

Protections only for our side

 

This is a fundamental wrong

One that cannot be denied

It belies the weak, not strong

The day that justice lied

 

(US blows up a speedboat off the

coast of Venezuela.)

 

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.)

 

Murder on Bourbon Street

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Murder on Bourbon Street

 

What kind of horror is this?

What kind of madness moved him?

With malice and murder aforethought

To trigger a chain of vengeance

To release a river of blood

To light the match of endless fire

When will it ever end?

 

Don’t tell us it’s the work of God

This is the deed of evil men

This is the depths of darkness

This is the hollow of despair

 

I have walked down Bourbon Street

In the city of the crescent moon

It is a place that embraces all

The diverse joys of life

A place to leave your trouble behind

Where love and wonder rise

In song and celebration

 

What kind of madness chooses

This time and place of jubilation

To execute an act of murder

Of cold-blooded deprivation

A vengeful act of inhumanity

To thrust this world into

An endless chain of terror?

 

When will it end?

When will we finally put down

The book of vengeance

And pick up the book of kindness?

 

Moscow Carnage

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RUSSIA

Moscow Carnage

 

An attack on art

Is an attack on humanity

The attack outside of Moscow

On a gathering of concert goers

(like the concert goers in Israel)

Is beyond the pale inhuman

The perpetrators of the massacre

Though they wear religious guise

Are the scum of the earth

Self-righteous killers

Beneath contempt

 

But those who blame Ukraine

Knowing well the lie they tell

Deserve a one-way ticket

Straight to hell

 

How many concert halls and schools

Were targeted in Ukraine

How many hospitals and libraries

How many gyms and shopping malls

 

Those who attacked the Crocus Concert

Hall are evil terrorists

Just as Russia under Vladimir Putin

Is an evil terrorist nation