False Dichotomy

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

False Dichotomy

 

Save the economy sacrifice lives

Save lives and sacrifice the economy

Suffer a headache or have a lobotomy

Plain and simple: a false dichotomy

 

Fools and small children

Only see the here and now

The day beyond today does not exist

Immediate gratification is all there is

We cannot see the forest for the trees

Rust for the junkyard

Mules for the donkeys

Waves for the seven seas

 

Be here now is a fine saying

But it has definite limits

Looking forward has its place

The future of the human race

 

Forced to choose between

hardship and sorrow

Bad choices will be made

The wise will find another way

 

Forced to choose between

today and tomorrow

The child will always choose today

The wise will choose tomorrow

and tomorrow beyond the day

 

The only way to secure the economy

Is to tend to the virus first

In sacrificing lives to save the markets

We sacrifice both and secure the worst

Brain Fog

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Brain Fog

The face on TV

WHAT’S HIS NAME

Had Covid two or three months ago

HIS BROTHER IS THE GOVERNOR

His symptoms linger on

HE WEARS HIS COURAGE

Among them brain fog

INSIDE HIS FEAR

He tells me

HE HIDES HIS FEAR

It may never go away

INSIDE HIS CONFIDENCE

Fear and rage take my place

WHAT IF?

It never goes away

IT NEVER GOES AWAY?

What cruel fate is this?

HOW DO YOU MAINTAIN A FACE?

Twenty million strong and counting

HOW DO YOU STAY STRONG?

Lost in a fog of tangled dendrites

KNOWING YOU HAVE LOST FOREVER

An endless maze of uncertainty

THAT WHICH MADE YOU

Knowing you will never again know

YOU

You

(the president says the virus

is 99% harmless)

Acceptable Loss

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Acceptable Loss

The old normal has gone away

We adjust our expectations

Increase our hospital capabilities

Improve our medications

We don’t believe the news we’re fed

We go our separate ways

We no longer follow where we’re led

If it means the end of days

We’re finally learning from other nations

They’ve managed so much better

It’s not all about the money

There are debts and there are debtors

We’re starting up the schools again

Without heeding to the boss

We need to make the classroom safe

While defining acceptable loss

We smell the toxic air

The problems we’ve ignored

We know it’s neither right nor fair

We’ve faced it all before

The new normal is a calculation

An unbearable equation

How many will we sacrifice

To normalize the nation

The Wall

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: THE RESISTANCE

The Wall

Graffiti on a battered wall:

On this ground the fascists fall!

The stormtroopers are geared up

And primed to come your way

Teargas and riot sticks

Helmets and vests

Camouflage uniforms leather boots

Goggles masks and night vision

Like they had in Fallujah

In another time and place

Line em up and fire away

MAGA hats are standing tall

Everyone else against the wall!

Anarchists do you hear

Anti-fascists filled with fear

Longhairs blacks rainbows browns

Brace yourselves you’re going down

People who still read books

Students in college towns

Run hide and don’t be found

Prepare ye for the fall

Line em up against the wall!

We’ve seen this horrid act before

(the states of Kent and Jackson)

It’s how the politicians score

(and how they justify their actions)

Create the violence they abhor

(and gage the media traction)

Then mend the lace they tore

It’s a blood sport and they’re on the road

Stirring trouble everywhere they go

Appearing nightly on the evening news

A smashing action show

Systemic Failure

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Systemic Failure

The rich got richer

The working folks barely got by

The poor became hungry and homeless

Too many old folks had nowhere to die

Then the pandemic hit

Any poor man’s mechanic can tell you

When a machine begins to sputter

You’ve only got so many miles

You can rig it and wrap it in duct tape

But it won’t take many more trials

Then the pandemic hit

We had a problem with inequality

And elected a white supremacist

We failed to house the homeless

And chose a man who did not care

The oceans were already rising

So we sanctified poison air

We sacrificed healthcare and schools

By handing it over to fools

Then the pandemic hit

The problems of all humanity

Bordered on the end of days

We needed a bonafide savior

So we went the other way

Then the pandemic hit

The Mask

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

The Mask

The man who’s never wrong

Admitted he was wrong today

He strutted into a famed hospital

And sang a different song today

He was not a happy man

You could see it in his eyes

He’d rather eat a dozen worms

Or tell a thousand lies

But he wore a mask today

And the pundits gave him praise

When they asked him why he said

Let’s see how it plays

You see it doesn’t really matter

That it would save many lives

It’s all about his favorability

And how his numbers rise

Johnny Got Covid

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Johnny Got Covid

Going back to school

Comes at a price

Johnny’s gonna get Covid

Sally’s gonna get lice

Kids will be kids

So the old folks say

It’s hard to control

How the children play

He comes home to mommy

She gives him a hug

A kiss before bedtime

Tucks him in snug

Life is a gamble

Kids are like chips

All will be well

Unless Johnny slips

Only the world’s biggest fool

Or a man without heart

Would order the schools open

Before they’re ready to start

White Privilege

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GEORGE FLOYD SERIES

White Privilege

I have known the hand of privilege

Been forgiven for my sins

Don’t they know under the surface

I am red beneath the skin

I have advanced above my betters

Some will lose while others win

Don’t they know under the cover

I am black beneath the skin

I earned more than my fair share

Don’t know where I should begin

Don’t they realize it’s all a mask

I am brown beneath the skin

No one tells you that its wrong

Like a song below the din

You accept the solemn truth

That it’s all about the skin

Roaches Survive

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Roaches Survive

Survival of the fittest is a two edged sword

There are times it strikes a wayward chord

For all its wonder and beauty

Nature can be unkind

It can smile on the wicked

And punish the divine

For the good may die young

And psychopaths may thrive

Butterflies perish

And roaches survive

Joy will leave too soon

And sorrow will arrive

The way of nature is logic

That seldom has rhyme

When it comes to science

Our destiny is blind

When it comes to mortality

There is so little time

But the truth will drive forward

And win in the end

We must never lose hope

We must always defend

But when it comes to survival

Just sheer brute drive

Butterflies will perish

Where roaches will thrive

Undocumented

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Undocumented

She was an essential worker

Producing fruit and vegetables

For your family dinner table

We sang her glory

Praised her sacrifice

Admired her honest labor

Neglecting to note

She had little choice

She did what she had to do

To put food on her own table

She was brave and strong

No one could deny

She showed up every morning

Worked until night

And took care of the kids

Every evening

She caught the virus

She did not know how

She had been cautious

(but had her kids?)

She wore a mask

(except at home)

She kept her distance

(the best she could)

Twice she went to church

To pray for the afflicted

Maybe then somehow

The laying on of hands

The shedding of tears

The close contacts

She was afraid to seek help

(and afraid not to)

She was undocumented

Would they send her home?

Would they deport her?

What would her children do?

She got sick and prayed

She closed her door and prayed

She told her kids to stay away

Until she was too weak to stop them

What else could she do?

She was undocumented

Not a person

Not a face

Just another number

Stricken by the virus

Taken by the disease

They cried for her in the barrio

They mourned her in Jalisco

They took her children in

Buried her in sacred ground

Sang of her in the cantina

Wove her into their folklore

Their culture of sacrifice

They prayed the rosary

Some say she died for being illegal

Others that she died for being poor

She was brave and strong

One country broke her heart

The other did her wrong

Gestapo in Portland

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: THE RESISTANCE

Gestapo in Portland

Unmarked soldiers in riot gear

Rounding up protesters in Portland Oregon

No charges no mandate no authority

But the political whim of the president

Desperate to prove his strength

He violates all constitutional guarantees

Ripping citizens off the streets

To establish his brutish credentials

Is this America?

Portland is a progressive city

That protects the rights of all

It is not a lawless state

It has not descended into anarchy

There are no riots in the streets

There is no absence of order

There has been no declaration

of Marshall Law

Yet the president orders

in his Gestapo troops to create

an illusion of disorder

that he can crush

like a bug underfoot

The strongman of Washington

employs the awesome power

of his office in the service of

fascist brutality

Go home Mister President

Take your stormtroopers with their

bullet proof vests and riot sticks

their rubber bullets and tear gas cannisters

and send them to a deep bunker

where they can hide their heads

in shame

This is not Moscow

This is not Tiananmen Square

This is not Chicago 1968

We are not a fascist state

And you are not Richard Nixon

Cease and desist

Man of Honor (for John Lewis)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GEORGE FLOYD SERIES

Man of Honor

Man of honor

Man of dignity

He overcame the weight of history

To become the conscience of the people’s house

They beat him down on the Edmund Pettus Bridge

They beat him back on the bus to freedom

He spilled his blood on the long march

to the promised land

Yet he never lost hope

He carried more than his share

of his generation’s burden

Yet he always believed he would get there

He marched with King

Stood beside Jesse Jackson

and prayed with Reverend Al

He broke bread with adversaries

and converted many to friends

It is tempting to believe

it is all for nothing

John Lewis was always there

to remind us where we’ve been

and remember how far we have come

Bolsonaro

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES


Bolsonaro

Was ever there a bigger fool than I

Under the vast Brazilian sky

I proclaimed the virus a joke

Just another liberal hoax

Now I suffer with the masses

Little children in their classes

Mothers fathers sons and nieces

Their whole world torn to pieces

They used to say if Trump was brown

Bolsonaro would hold his ground

But now we’ve turned it all around

The Brazilian smile becomes a frown

The world may say I have no shame

For Bolsonaro is my name

The brightest light in all the land

I have no light there is no band

Now I suffer by myself

I place my pride upon the shelf

My leadership no longer pretty

I spend my hours in self-pity

Black Men with Guns

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GEORGE FLOYD SERIES

Black Men with Guns

They shoot horses don’t they?

They shot panthers back in the day

Doesn’t matter what you say or do

They shoot black men with guns too

Good old boys call themselves militia

And march right up to the capitol dome

Wearing swastikas with weapons of war

They are made to feel at home

But if blacks gather in the city square

With rifles over their shoulders

They are pronounced terrorists and thugs

Their reception could not be colder

They are told they are not welcome here

Go on home and take your guns

If they refuse and claim their sacred right

They will soon be on the run

Round here black men do not carry

And they do not mix with whites

But most of all they never claim

To possess a white man’s rights

Thirty Heroes

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GEORGE FLOYD SERIES

Thirty Heroes

To be named an American hero

should be an honor that outlasts time

To be named an American hero

by the worst president in history

is something less than honor

How would Frederick Douglass feel

knowing that this president speaks

the language of the confederacy?

How would MLK feel knowing

this president has welcomed

white supremacy to his fold

and legitimized the Klan?

There are no native Americans

on the president’s list of heroes

There are no Asians or Chicanos

though some are “good people”

There are no scientists on the list

No artists poets or resistance leaders

To not be named is a badge of honor

The mendacity of this man

to think that he can dictate

American values and American heroes

is unbounded in the chronicles of time

We shall choose our own heroes

and you shall not be among them