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

 

Despots United

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Despots United

 

When despots act in unity

The dangers are compounded

Bold aggression with impunity

Diplomacy confounded

 

Kim the Grim and Vlad the Bad

Are suddenly best of friends

Nothing positive can be had

When the peace on them depends

 

Kim supplies the warriors

Vladimir supplies the tech

An evil Huck and Tom Sawyer

What looms is a massive wreck

 

The world must stand at ready

When such despots come together

Hold them back and hold it steady

They are birds of a wicked feather

 

They must suffer for their actions

Their communion cannot hold

For all who join their evil faction

The reaction must be bold

 

(3,000 North Korean troops

amass on the Ukrainian border.)

Kim & Putin

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Kim & Putin

 

North Korea is a failed nation

A factory for weapons

A training ground for soldiers

An experiment in autocracy

A home to the darkest web

A warden and a prison state

 

It is a threat to the civilized world

A threat to order and democracy

A threat to its southern neighbors

A scourge on human rights

A disgrace to common decency

 

Now the emblematic rogue nation

Forms alliance with the great aggressor

The beast of the great northern

The man who would be king

 

Korean boots on Ukrainian ground

How much bolder could they be?

Keep the silence. What’s that sound?

Lost respect and dignity

 

You cannot lose what you never had

North Korea is a pariah state

It’s gone to worse from extremely bad

For dignity it’s far too late

Russian Blood on Ukrainian Soil

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE WAR

Russian Blood

 

Hundreds of soldiers die each day

In a war for Ukrainian land

Ukrainians hunker down and pray

As they face their final stand

 

It is a war for pride and greed

It sadly makes your blood boil

Our sense of justice bleeds

Russian blood on Ukrainian soil

 

Three years of bloody killing

Of sending soldiers lost to die

Three years and we’re still willing

While all Russia wonders why

 

The blood is on his filthy hands

A man without a heart

All to boost the Russian brand

To tear the world apart

 

How many lives must pay the cost?

How long will your people toil?

Before you know your cause is lost

Russian blood on Ukrainian soil

 

No Words

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

No Words

 

Masha has no father, no family

She has no words for Vladimir Putin

She is from Kiev

To be from Kiev is to know sorrow

The sorrow of losing loved ones

The sorrow of losing one’s home

The sorrow of losing a life

She has no words for Vladimir Putin

She has only hatred

 

The war drags on like a stubborn storm

Like an illness that won’t go away

An aching throbbing persistent pain

A disease of the heart and soul

Like a never-ending rain

 

We have no words for Vladimir Putin

He has no heart for us

He has no care for human suffering

He has only his ambition

He feels nothing for anyone but his self

 

If the world is to find a way forward

We must move forward without him

He is a growth that must be removed

He is the heart of all our sorrow

We have no more words for him

Only hate

Only pity

Only sorrow

As Election Day Draws Near

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Election Day (Clear Choice)

 

If you believe in a right to choose

The choice is absolutely clear

Down the line your vote is blue

As election day draws near

 

If you believe in a free Ukraine

An untethered Putin you should fear

The truth is absolutely plain

As election day draws near

 

If you want to end the Gaza war

If the genocide draws your tears

There’s only one way to close that door

As election day draws near

 

If you favor our democracy

If the founders you hold dear

If you don’t want an autocracy

The choice is very clear

 

If you believe in labor rights

Your choice is very clear

Who stands beside you in your fight

As election day draws near?

 

If you fear the planet’s warming

As the phony naysayers jeer

If you find the giant storms alarming

Your choice is beyond clear

 

Come November 5: Vote!

 

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

 

KGB

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: PUTIN

KGB (by any other name)

 

Putin led the KGB

Against all western ways

He practiced his deceptions

He tortured killed and maimed

The villains on the other side

Would never be the same

The KGB it never died

They just changed the name

 

Putin was the KGB

He went against the grain

He lacked all moral grounding

His cruelty was plain

A ruthlessness we can’t abide

The way he played the game

The KGB it never died

They just changed its name

 

The evil forces are in charge

They’re borderline insane

They want to conquer everyone

They’re efforts are in vain

They waited in the shadows

Before the darkness came

The KGB it never died

They just changed its name

 

They took hold of Crimea

Before the invasion of Ukraine

That they want to rule the world

Has become so very plain

If Putin had a conscience

He would live in constant shame

The KGB it never died

They just changed its name

 

Drones Over Moscow

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

 

Drones over Moscow

 

What goes up must come down

What moves forward will move back

What you reap will come round

The train called Payback is on track

 

There are drones over Moscow

Armed with deadly force

More than reason would allow

Ukraine will stay on course

 

Vladimir is running scared

How could such a thing occur?

It isn’t right! It isn’t fair!

Let’s go back to how things were

 

But things will not go back

Things are moving straight ahead

Ukraine will launch its next attack

Russia’s forces will be bled

 

Call off your dogs and go home

Bring your war to an end

A losing Russia stands alone

Without an ally or a friend

 

The Tradeoff

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

The Tradeoff

 

Politics is the art of negotiation

For every initiative there is a price

If you want order surrender freedom

If you want pasta give up some rice

 

The protesters in Chicago

Want a ceasefire yesterday

They do not seem to understand

There will be a price to pay

 

Cut off funding to Israel today

Ukraine will lose funding tomorrow

Is that a cost you’re willing to pay?

Ukraine in perpetual sorrow

 

If you set the convention on fire

You might exact a few concessions

But if your efforts turn out dire

You may learn a chilling lesson

 

Remember who your enemy is

He wears an extremely long red tie

If your purpose aligns with his

Soon enough you will wonder why

 

(on the eve of the DNC in Chicago)

The Crack

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE WAR

The Crack

 

A crack in the wall of lies

The myth of Putin’s might

A blow that fate defies

A glimmering of light

 

Ukraine strikes across the border

What now can be done?

What now of Russia’s order?

A war that can’t be won

 

The crack will grow in size

A dark canyon of growing doubt

The Russian people finally rise

To demand that they get out

 

Putin’s madness is now exposed

His infallibility shattered

Remember the day Ukrainians rose

And the Russian conscripts scattered

 

Bring your forlorn soldiers home

While there’s still a chance to save face

Before your nation you stand alone

There is for you no place

 

While We Looked Away

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GAZA

While We Looked Away

 

Obsessed with the president’s age

And a failed assassination

A celebration on the stage

A christening of the nation

And while we looked away

The Gaza annihilation

Accelerated every day

 

This is how our world runs

The revolving cycle of the news

That which titillates and stuns

It comes in threes and twos

And when we look away

We never have a clue

The ghouls come out to play

It’s sad but it is true

 

Keep your eyes on the prize

The demons never rest

Through all the righteous lies

We will welcome our new guest

And while we look away

The destruction of Gaza

Proceeds every day

 

Like a story from a tragic book

A tale of blood and rage

We do not want to look

At the horrors of our age

So when we look away

We know what they will do

In Gaza and Ukraine

It’s sad but it is true

Manchurian Candidate

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Manchurian Candidate

 

“I don’t really care what happens to

Ukraine.”  J.D. Vance

 

The man has no backbone

No conviction or restraint

In his grand quest for power

A man of principle he ain’t

 

He once stood for justice

And the American way

But the man he once was

Is not the man he is today

 

He has sold his very soul

For a chance at that ring

He would eat a lump of coal

He would do anything

 

He would kiss the man’s boot

If there is something to gain

It took him less than a second

To sacrifice Ukraine

 

He will bow to the Don

The Don bows to the Vlad

As for our democracy

The prognosis is bad

 

A Moral Dilemma

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

A Moral Dilemma (Conscription)

 

To defend one’s nation from a foreign

invader is above all a righteous cause

But military conscription without

exemption defies all moral laws

 

Without doubt Ukraine is in desperate need

Their enemy lacks all moral restraint

Our soul cries out, our conscience bleeds

We pray to the heavens for a warrior saint

 

But conscription is not the answer

It betrays all sense of the good and right

To a righteous cause it is a cancer

You cannot answer right with might

 

We cannot know what the future holds

We can only hope the good prevails

We pray our side is strong and bold

That the wind will bless our sails

 

As we charge into this windswept sea

Let us always yield to the right and true

For what we dream is what will be

And what we are is what we do

 

Human Tragedies

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

Human Tragedies

 

The wasteland from Texas to Missouri

mirrors the destruction from Gaza to Ukraine.

 

One is born of a human failure to learn and

understand how separate and distinct peoples

can live together in peace.

 

The other is born of a human failure to

understand and learn how our behavior

bears tragic consequences.

 

Until we learn how to accept our differences

without wanting to destroy each other we will

continue to foment wars of growing mass

destruction.

 

Until we learn that pumping toxic waste

into our atmosphere distorts and corrupts

the natural processes of climate and extreme

weather we will continue to suffer ever greater

climate catastrophes. 

 

Differences in beliefs, religions, cultures, and

philosophies are natural and appropriate; the desire

to annihilate others and take their lands based on

those differences is unnatural, morbid and devoid

of basic humanity. 

 

Tornadoes, hurricanes and tidal waves are

natural if unfortunate; monster storms and

a chain of twisters five hundred miles long

are unnatural and a testament to human greed

and obstinacy.

 

If we are to choose humanity and nature over

greed and avarice, we must alter our behaviors

and beliefs to create a better world for all the

earth’s inhabitants.

Putin and Xi (The Dark Alliance)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Putin and Xi

 

Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping

The monster of Moscow

The bully of Beijing

They will lie and cheat and do anything

To further their cause of expansion

 

China claims Taiwan is theirs

Russia claims Ukraine

They rattle their sabers on a dare

Their intentions cold and plain

 

They want a new age of empire

The glory of their past

The west denies their brute desires

Their flags are at half mast

 

They push all states toward their ends

With arms and blatant bribes

But on economy their cause depends

That is the true divide

 

Xi and Putin will pay a price

Beyond prestige and lives

Losing their best trade allies

Their rule may not survive