After the Fall

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: SYRIA

After the Fall (Syria)

 

Assad is gone

The brutal dictator has flown away

Seeking refuge in Moscow

Leaving the signs of his depravity behind

Torture chambers and detention centers

The blood of the murdered

The screams of the dead

Assad is gone and hope is reborn

Yet hope is tainted with doubt

The millions who have fled

The Assad reign of terror

Wait in uncertainty

They celebrate the moment

They embrace the possibilities

Yet they do not yet come home

No one knows what happens next

No one can make the call

After the fall

 

We pray it is better

How could it be worse?

Yet we do not know

Will the new regime be open?

Will it crack down on dissent?

Will it move toward democracy?

Or will it shatter into pieces?

Syria is a nation in search of itself

Already it is under siege

Already it is under attack

The days and weeks that follow

Will determine all

After the fall

Democracy in Seoul

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

Democracy in Seoul

 

The declaration of martial law

In South Korea has failed

Their parliament reacted swiftly

Democracy has prevailed

 

The people gathered in the streets

As they tried to block the Assembly

But the people’s ministers saved the day

A day that will live in memory

 

The day their republic survived

Their president’s thirst for power

If not for the people’s courage

It would be their darkest hour

 

It is one of so many reminders

How fragile a republic can be

The people must always stand ready

To rise up for the right to be free

 

Some say it could not happen here

Others say it has come to pass

The lesson of Seoul is very clear

One failure could be our last

 

The Streets of Tbilisi

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

The Streets of Tbilisi

 

Three nights of protest on the streets of Tbilisi

A rage against the government that will not quell

Riot police use violent means

Turning the streets into Georgian hell

 

The government caved to Russian interests

After fraud claimed the latest election

Civil servants and ambassadors resigned

A massive representative defection

 

The Georgian people wish to join the union

To move away from the Russian beast

They are waging a war for democracy

They want their meddling to cease

 

The Russians are fighting on a dozen fronts

They are swimming against the tide

They are running short on resources

Lending strength to freedom’s ride

 

The struggle does not end here and now

They will carry it forward forever

If you ask them when they will surrender

They will answer with pride: Never!

 

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

 

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

 

Mourning in America

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Mourning in America

 

The majority* of Americans

Have made their feeling clear

The rest of us are mourning

For the nation we hold dear

 

We cannot deny the mandate

Unlike the opposing side

We’ve lost our democratic state

Now we’re forced to take a ride

 

Down the autocratic lane

Where brutes and tyrants live

So begins the tyrant’s reign

That history will not forgive

 

It is mourning in America

And all around the world

The once proud democracy

Into the void was hurled

 

We will not give up hope

We’ll rise to fight again

We’re facing a daunting slope

With a deep desire to win

 

* Plurality

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

 

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.)

BRICS

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

BRICS

 

Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa

You are judged by the company you keep

Brazil, South Africa, India

I believe you are in too deep

 

Do you really want to be

In the company of brute dictators?

Far better to make friends

With republicans and liberators

 

You’ve been tempted by oppressors

In all their varied forms

Blatant cheats and vote depressors

We hope you have reformed

 

But if you wish to make alliance

With the planet’s worst offenders

We’ll reconsider our reliance

On your human rights defenders

 

A new world is taking shape

We are taking it in stride

Consider every step you take

Do not take the other side

 

Weight of the World

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

Weight of the World

 

The weight of the world bears down on us

Like a constant pounding storm

A chain of twisters surrounding us

On a planet that’s growing warm

 

Democracy is under siege

Everywhere across the globe

War and hunger, people grieve

We will fear what we don’t know

 

Our media institutions fail

We have chosen not to believe

We have placed our faith in holy grails

While we lose on every lead

 

And still the world grows warmer

The weight is bearing down

We’re in love with a snake charmer

As we run the ship aground

 

We hold out for better days

May the good and right prevail

May we strive to solve the maze

With all at stake we best not fail

 

El Gran Dictador!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Nicaragua: El Gran Dictador

 

He promised prosperity for all

He delivered a police state

His adversaries are in jail

He has stolen their land

He has taken their citizenship

He has sent them into exile

 

Yet his people live in poverty

The poor and the elderly

And condemned to the streets

The physically and mentally challenged

Have lost all support

The government controls everything

From religious institutions

To social gatherings

They control the military

They control the police

They control the judiciary

They control the media

The economy is crippled

His servants are corrupt

 

Once they were revolutionaries

They fought against Samoza

Now they become what they opposed

The oppressors

The abusers

The lost

 

Ortega is the new Samoza

The great dictator

El Gran Dictador

Sedition in Hong Kong

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Sedition in Hong Kong

 

Sedition in Hong Kong

Is daring to act like a journalist

 

Sedition in Hong Kong

Is daring to criticize Beijing

 

Once there was hope of freedom

Freedom of speech

Freedom of assembly

Freedom to march the streets in protest

Freedom to publish your views

 

That hope was brutally attacked

By the officers of oppression

 

Now they jail journalists

Now they serve warning to all

Who would ever dare oppose them

 

They don’t know the history of resistance

They don’t know the power of the people

It may take a decade of resistance

It may take a century of defiance

But the people will not forget

The people will not give in

They will find a way forward

They will find the path to freedom

They will march toward democracy

Step by step, year after year

Decade after decade

Until at last they prevail

 

(Stand News editors Chung Pui-kuen

and Patrick Lam sentence to prison.)

 

The Price of Freedom

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

The Price of Freedom

 

In El Salvador they have no freedom

They traded it for order

Not long ago gangs ruled the streets

Drugs and human trafficking

Freely crossed the border

Murder rape and mayhem

The people fled in droves

Escaping a state of anarchy

To where nobody knows

 

They elected a hardnosed autocrat

On a promise of establishing law

He eliminated the opposition

Replaced justices with his own

He cracked down on honest journalists

Denied the right to protest

Free speech and the right to assemble

Imprisoned gangs without a trial

 

Nayib Bukele is no friend to democracy

But he kept his solemn promise

A land of chaos became a land of order

People are safer within their border

They may live without fear

 

There is a lesson and a warning here

For all democratic nations

When the people are not safe

When the police are on the take

When the government is corrupt

When there is no sense of hope

The people will sacrifice their freedom

They will abandon democracy

And democracy, once sacrificed

Is not easily returned

 

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

 

Berlin Lament

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Berlin Lament

 

The rise of the right in Germany

Makes us wonder where decency went

Their success in the recent elections

Has us singing the Berlin lament

 

It reminds us we can never rest

We must always be on guard

To face the latest fascist test

To stand up though it may be hard

To put forth our democratic best

While they play the racist card

 

We applaud our fellows in Germany

Who rise in democracy’s defense

We must never yield to their pressure

Lest we sing the Berlin lament

 

People of Israel Rising

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ISRAEL/GAZA

People of Israel Rising

 

The people of Israel are rising

Fed up with your dirty war

Fed up with your phony efforts

Sickened to their very core

 

They’re tired of supporting you

You think you’re so damn clever

Without regard for what you do

You want a war to fight forever

 

You’ll always have another reason

As the blood flows down the streets

Another war for every season

Your anger fuels the heat

 

Bring all your people home today

The people you did not defend

It doesn’t matter what you say

It is time for your war to end

 

The people are your masters

Not the other way around

Your way has been a great disaster

Have the courage to step down

 

Hope Rises

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Hope Rises

 

The night belongs to hope

A memory of the past

When they dwelled in the White House

Somehow we knew it would not last

But here on this Chicago night

Our hopes begin to stir

They linger in the rafters

The thought of how things were

When a man with funny ears

And a rhythm to his step

Led with calm and dignity

A mood that never slept

He lifted us with words

He calmed us through the night

With him we always knew

It would all turn out right

So now they bring a message

That hope will always rise

When good people come together

And answer to the cry:

Freedom, hope and dignity

Comfort us once more

They speak and we remember

What we’re fighting for

 

(The Obamas at the DNC)