Around the World

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Around the World

 

The war in Gaza rages

The war in Yemen holds

The wars progress in stages

The Ukrainians will not fold

 

The tariff wars intensify

Across the global stage

Our leaders taking foreign bribes

The Saudis are in play

 

Everywhere we plant a seed

The future is in doubt

Autocracies grow like weeds

Democracy is out

 

The war is raging everywhere

Our rights are on the run

Those in power do not care

The reckoning has begun

 

The warming is the greatest threat

To all that live on earth

We’ve just begun to pay the debt

How much is the planet worth?

 

The Day Saigon Fell

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

The Day Saigon Fell

 

The day that Saigon fell *

Ended fifty years of hell **

Fifty years since that day

We’ve learned there’s a price to pay

 

For fighting endless wars

That wound us to our core

Wars in other people’s lands

Iraq and Afghanistan

 

Wars that leave a lasting stain

Yemen and Ukraine

I wonder if we’ve learned at all

Fifty years since the fall

 

We’ve pledged to end all war

We’ve sworn to fight no more

But then the bugle sounds

And another war goes down

 

Soldiers by the thousands die

As mothers wonder why

Their children are deceased

When will we live in peace?

 

* April 28, 1975

** British, French and American wars

Escalation

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Escalation

 

The war in Yemen escalates

The war in Ukraine accelerates

The war in Gaza venerates

A once and would-be king

 

He was the master deal maker

He promised war would end

He was a giver not a taker

His deals would make amends

 

The bombs in Yemen fall

The missiles in Ukraine

They’re building up the walls

Mass destruction is in vain

 

All his promises are broken

His words a waste of breath

All his efforts are a token

To a world of endless death

 

The war in Ukraine escalates

In Yemen war accelerates

A land that Israel decimates

A long-forgotten king