Twisted History: A Legacy of Shame

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  GEORGE FLOYD SERIES

Twisted History

400 years since slaves arrived on the American shore

220 years since the birth of the Underground Railroad

200 years since the Missouri Compromise

163 years since Dred Scott

159 years since the inception of the Civil War

157 years since the Emancipation Proclamation

156 years since the burning of Atlanta

155 years since the 13^th Amendment

154 years since Lincoln’s assassination

154 years since the birth of the KKK

153 years since reconstruction

150 years since the dawn of Jim Crow

124 years since Plessy V. Ferguson

99 years since the Tulsa Massacre

83 years since the death of Bessie Smith

81 years since Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit

75 years since the Civil Rights Act

65 years since the lynching of Emmett Till

56 years since Nina Simone’s Mississippi Goddamn

55 years since the killing of Malcolm X

55 years since the summer of Watts

52 years since the assassination of the King

51 years since the Hampton and Clark

29 years since Rodney King

7 years since the nullification of Voting Rights

7 years since Black Lives Matter

6 years since the murder of Michael Brown

6 years since Tamar Rice and Eric Garner

5 years since Jamar Clark

4 years since Philando Castile

3 years since Charlottesville

2 years since Botham Jean

1 year since Danquirs Franklin

4 months since Ahmaud Arberi

3 months since Breonna Taylor

2 months since Sean Reed

1 month since George Floyd

1 day since Rayshard Brooks

After 400 years of twisted history

False promises exploitation

And brutality

Atlanta burns

America wonders why

The Band Plays On

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  CORONAVIRUS SERIES

The Band Plays On

The death toll rises

As the band plays on

Fire fills the western sky

And the band plays on

Old folks keep on dying

While the band plays on

Loved ones are crying

As the band plays on

Our hospitals are overrun

Our cities smell of rot

A shadow lurks o’er the sun

Our happiness is not

We live in sorrow day and night

The horror has no end

We hide our eyes from dreadful sights

As death becomes our friend

Blindness is appalling

When it is willful ignorance

When it harms the ones we love

And offends intelligence

The death toll keeps rising

Our faith is almost gone

Our sympathy is fading

While the band plays on

Acceleration

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Acceleration

The virus finds its mark

Zeroes in

Attacks like a pack of wolves

Spreads like a murder of crows

In flight

Accelerates like a diving bird

Of prey

We thought it would go away

Returned to our ordinary lives

Locked our old folks in their place

Stopped tracking the daily toll

Placed our fate in the hands of god

Rolled the dice and played the game

We are where we are because

We wanted to be free

We are where we are because

We refused to be controlled

By some incomprehensible enemy

Because our leader went to sleep

Dismissed all the guards and

Told us not to worry

Because we are Americans

Always in a hurry

The virus doesn’t care

What we say or what we think

The acceleration is happening

As we stand on the brink

Return of COVID-19

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Return of COVID-19

Like a grade B movie from the fifties

A horror flick no one wanted

And no one flocked to see

Back by unpopular demand

And stubborn insistence

It’s COVID-19

Killer of the elderly

The frail and the infirm

With a penchant for darker skin

It strikes by day strikes by night

Travels by air and evades sight

It claimed 100 thousand lives

And still got no respect

So it returns in form

To claim 100 thousand more

No one can say

We did not have fair warning

It comes like a whisper

To lead us in mourning

We know what to do

But we’ve lost our patience

We’ve lost our will and common sense

So let the old folks go

Let the weak fall down

Let the young and strong

Seek solid ground

Contrary to wishful opinion

It did not disappear in warmer weather

It did not thrive on media attention

It survived without intention

Like a shadow in the dark

It worked its deadly spell

On frail and unsuspecting prey

One by one the weak ones fell

Gone from view it now returns

To ravage us in light of day

And we are left with little to do

But bow our heads and pray

Random Facts (A Roll of the Dice)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Random Facts

If you live in Taiwan or Sweden

South Korea or New Zealand

If you’re Asian or Caucasian

If you’re healthy and strong

If you live in a house

If you work at home

If your income is secure

If you have little stress

If you’re under fifty-five

Without conditions underlying

Then you’re the lucky one

The odds are with you

Throw the dice

If you live in Italy or Brazil

New York or Great Britain

If you’re black or brown

If you live in the barrio or favela

If you reside in the projects

If you lack fresh vegetables and fruit

If you’re over sixty-five

If you take medications

For conditions underlying

Then your luck is running thin

Let the prayers begin

If you’re feeling a little sick

You’ve drawn the short end of the stick

Are you lucky my friend?

Depends

On who what and where you are

One roll you survive

Another

You don’t get out alive

Random chance random facts

First second or final act

Roll the dice and let us see

What alas your fate will be

Confluence of Catastrophe

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Confluence of Catastrophe

Wildfires in the west

Hurricanes in the east

In the midst of a great pandemic

The reaper is preparing a feast

We are walking in our sleep

Too dazed to think ahead

We know we should get ready

But we’d rather play games instead

Is there anybody out there

Who knows what we should do?

Is there anybody out there

Who can help us see it through?

We are a ship without a captain

Like a rig without a wheel

We are adrift in open waters

And we don’t know what to feel

We are waiting for a hero

To shake us from our gloom

If we do not soon awaken

We are sure to meet our doom

Back to School

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Back to School

Can I go back to school today

Me and Johnny want to play

I promise to do my homework

And the president says it’s okay

You cannot go back to school today

You cannot go back tomorrow

There are just too many questions

Better safe than sorrow

But I have to go back to school today

I have to see my friends

Johnny’s mom is letting him go

Cause the world is on the mend

You cannot go back to school today

But you must go back soon I know

We can’t keep you home forever

But at least we can take it slow

We’ll pray for little Johnny

As we pray for all the kids

I fear you are paying the price

For the terrible things we did

Willful Ignorance (for James Baldwin)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  GEORGE FLOYD SERIES

Willful Ignorance

The words of a great man

From a former generation

Haunt the white man’s world

With the weight of eternal history

And the depth of eternal knowledge

“If you can overcome the curtain of my color”

Then we can live in peace

If not we will be at war perpetually

A war like most wars that no one can win

“I want exactly what you want”

I want to be left alone

I want to walk the streets of America

Without fear of never returning

To my home

I want my children and theirs

To grow up in safe neighborhoods

Where kindness and wisdom thrive

Where hatred and brutality fail

“You will listen or you will perish”

And we will perish together

Like pigs in a pen

Like fools in a pool of madness

We are human beings

We are not bison or beavers

That you can hunt into extinction

We are not leaving

This is our land as much as yours

You brought us here as slaves

But we are free

We have won our freedom

And we will not yield equality

We are here to stay

Make peace with that reality

(respectfully for James Baldwin)

Killing Doctors in Moscow

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Killing Doctors in Moscow

We show mercy to the terminally ill

We shoot animals in pain

They let doctors die in Russia

For telling the truth in vain

A doctor takes a solemn oath

To treat the sick and do no harm

When you witness dangerous situations

You have a duty to raise alarm

But the Kremlin thinks its surrounded

By a bubble of immunity

If they keep it all a secret

It does not hit your own community

It doesn’t matter where you’re from

Or where you practice your occupation

You deserve respect and common decency

From the leaders of your nation

So cry now for Moscow

And let your tears flow

The image of a proud nation

Falls to the one we know

It Ain't Over

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

It Ain’t Over

You can’t end a war with a fantasy

You can’t tell a virus to cease and desist

You can’t halt death with a snap of your fingers

You can’t stop a storm with a wish

Did you think it would all disappear

If you said there was nothing to fear?

Did you believe it would go away

If you commanded it not to stay?

When we were bright eyed kids

And the world was ours to declare

We could pick up our marbles and leave

If we thought the game wasn’t fair

But those days are forever gone

We now face the fate we’ve earned

When we pour fuel on a fire

We know we will get burned

You can’t stop the sun from rising

You can’t stop the sea with a prayer

You can’t stop an eagle from flying

You can’t stop disease with a dare

It ain’t over till it’s over

New York Breakdown

RANDOM POETRY HOUR: GEORGE FLOYD SERIES

New York Breakdown

Brutality on the streets of New York

Betrayal of the public trust

The shining beacon on an island

Has gone from boom to bust

New York we love you

But you’re beating us down *

The city of enlightenment

City of dreams now broken

And scattered into a million

Little pieces on bloodied ground

When the pandemic smashed into you

Like the first wave of a tsunami

We turned to you in admiration

We looked to you for salvation

We held you up for inspiration

We felt for you and prayed

Now you revert to political form

And blame the beaten

For being bruised

New York we love you

But you will be forsaken

After centuries of injustice

It’s time to awaken

[* LCD Soundsystem:

New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down]

Lockdown Pennsylvania Avenue

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  GEORGE FLOYD SERIES

Lockdown Pennsylvania Avenue

With the impeachment trial

An enemies list

Disdain for lawful protest

Rejection of civil rights

And disregard for civil liberties

The horrors of the day

Recall the reign of Tricky Dick

Who resigned in disgrace

But it was LBJ who hunkered down

In the Oval Office

Locked down in the White House

While an army of vocal protesters

Camped out beyond the fence

And refused to leave

LBJ ended his reign under siege

In an act of common decency

To spare the nation further pain

He refused to seek a second term

Acknowledged nothing more to gain

If only this president

Had the decency of LBJ

He would step down and fade away

But he is neither Nixon nor LBJ

He’s under lockdown behind razor wire

In the fortress on Pennsylvania Avenue

Alone and despondent

He knows now he couldn’t make the grade

He curses ghosts in the darkness

Lashes out at those he sees

Devolves into madness

Issuing his decrees

Johnson escalated Vietnam

Nixon doubled down

But neither put our troops

On American ground

Not Enough

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GEORGE FLOYD SERIES

Not Enough

Justice calling with charges of

Second degree murder

Aiding and abetting

A first and second step

Toward peace

Not enough

Remove them from the force

And all their collaborators

End the conspiracy of silence

Review every case

The dirty cops ever touched

Compensate their victims

And free the abused

Put them behind bars

And ask how they like it now

Still not enough

Rebuild the inner cities

The westsides the eastsides

From the ground up

Provide decent housing

And living wages

An end to homelessness

And mass incarceration

Restore voting rights

Healthcare for all

Not enough

It will never be enough

Until the hearts and minds of all

Are altered at the core

It will never be enough

Until every bad cop

Is relieved of duty

Now and forever

It will not be enough

Until cops go to jail

For crimes committed

Behind the badge

Beneath the cover of darkness

It will never be enough

Until people of color

Can walk down the streets

Without fear of the color blue

Vampires of Protest

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GEORGE FLOYD SERIES

Vampires of Protest

Looters and instigators

Thieves and agitators

Brick throwers and manipulators

Leeches and parasites

Vampires of protest

Who hide out in the daylight

And only come out at night

Bloodsuckers feeding

On righteous indignation

The poison well of exploitation

Poised to march and ready to fight

But the vampires only

Come out at night

Justice seekers hit the streets

Day after day soldiers of light

To change what’s wrong

And uphold what’s right

A cause subverted by

Losers and lowlifes

A disgusting sight

They only come out at night

Insurrection

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GEORGE FLOYD SERIES

Insurrection

The uprising begins

The insurrection is upon us

Soldiers march on the streets of America

Our own against our own

Mounted police in the nation’s capital

Batons riot sticks and pepper spray

Facing down peaceful protesters

In the glaring light of day

The eyes of the world are watching

The earth bears witness to this offense

The official deployment of brutality

Against the right of the people to speak

The president declares insurrection

Swears an oath to beat them down

Like rabid dogs without homes

Put them in their rightful place

Restore law and order

As only brutes and monarchs can

Remember Kent State

Remember Ohio

Remember Jackson State

Remember Berkeley Square

The president declares war

On his own people

And we know how it ends

Someone must die

To appease the king

And uphold the lie

Of justice in America

Good People on Both Sides

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  GEORGE FLOYD SERIES

Good People

Some words never fade

They stick in your mind

Where you don’t want to look

And wait for a reckoning

A moment of clarity

When finally as if by magic

It all makes sense

Good people on both sides

Neo Nazis and civil rights protesters

Swastikas against peace symbols

Advocacy against insults

Reason against threats

Resistance against aggression

A woman crushed for taking a stand

Good people on both sides

A man killed for being black

Good people and bad apples

As the nation explodes in rage

Our president yields to silence

Except to encourage violence

Nothing against the racist extreme

Nothing against the white supreme

Blame it on antifa: the anti-fascists

Blame it on the leftist scourge

Get tough against the mob

Good people on both sides

Nothing about the man who died

Nothing to heal the nation’s divide

Nothing but MAGA pride

Good people on our side

The others are all terrorists

You know what we do with terrorists

Lock em up!

Crush em like cockroaches!

Stuff em in a cage!

Teach em a lesson they’ll take

To the grave!

Some words never fade

Some folks never change

Some are elected president

To remind us of our shame