Freedom

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Freedom

 

WE WERE BORN IN FREEDOM

we hang our heads in shame

FOUGHT WARS IN FREEDOM

we wonder where we went wrong

SACRIFICED FOR FREEDOM

should we have put it in a poem

PAID A PRICE FOR FREEDOM

should we have sung it in a song

 

SO YOU CAN’T BE SURPRISED

you don’t have the right

THAT WE PROCLAIM OUR RIGHT

to yell fire in a crowd

TO BREATHE THE AIR UNHINDERED

you don’t have the right to kill

AND FOR THAT RIGHT WE WILL FIGHT

the right to harm is not allowed

 

WE DON’T HEAR WHAT YOU’RE SAYING

when it’s all said and done

TO US IT’S NOTHING BUT NOISE

we really must ask

WE KNOW WHO WE ARE

how many must die

AND SO DO OUR BOYS

before you wear a mask?

Beirut

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

Beirut                                                                                                             

 

Paris of the Middle East

City of enlightenment

Land of song and poetry

Jewel of the Mediterranean

Ancient city of commerce and trade

Rich in culture art and tradition

City that beckons the curious

And welcomes all

 

The heart of Beirut still beats strong

But she is wounded by war

Pestilence and strife

The world’s powers factions and tribes

Have made her their playground

 

Now misfortune finds misfortune

An explosion rips up the port district

Spilling blood and spreading terror

Through an already unsettled populace

 

What more can the fates unfold?

What more can the people endure?

 

Pray for peace

Pray for healing

Pray in whatever tongue you hold

Pray to whatever god you honor

Pray that Beirut becomes itself again

 

As Beirut goes

So goes the world

 

(An explosion in Beirut 8.6.20 killed

about 150 and wounded thousands)

LIving with Fear

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Living with Fear

 

Will we live or will we die

Life is filled with mystery

Will we die or will we live

We know not what may be

 

We live in constant fear

The fear that is not knowing

We hide it in our shirt sleeve

And hope it is not showing

 

This fear of fear is strange

But we know it to be true

You keep it tucked away from me

I keep it hidden from you

 

We live our waking lives in fear

We have no other choice

I see it in the way we move

I hear it in your voice

 

How long can we get by this way

How long before we break

We stumble trip and fall each day

Surviving for survival’s sake

 

 

Grateful

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Grateful

 

In these times of heavy hearts when

thoughts linger into sleepless nights

I’m grateful not to be alone

Grateful to share a home

With the one I love

 

I think of those less fortunate

Confined behind familiar walls

That bear no marks of affection

That share no living hope

 

I think of those with no one

to share the burden of the times

No one to tell one’s truth

No one to reflect one’s mind

 

I think of those who must choose

a life of loneliness and yearning

or risk no life at all

 

Our hearts were not designed

for such a heartless choice

We were born seeking the comfort

of our fellow human beings

 

I am grateful to have landed

in this place at this time

My love is my hope and comfort

Her love becomes mine

 

(for Julie)

Mama Never Lies

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

Mama Never Lies

 

Mama taught us to believe

In the police the teachers and preachers

Mama told us so it must be right

Mama told us with a sigh

And mamas never lie

 

Mama taught us to show respect

For people in authority

And no one has more authority

Than the president

Even if you disagree

Even if you see the world

Through different eyes

Presidents do not lie

 

Mama told us to go to church

And pray to the baby Jesus

Listen to the preacher man

Be humble and be good

Go to heaven when you die

Preachers never lie

 

Mama taught us to say sir

When a cop stops to talk

Nod our heads and show our hands

Though she did not say why

We got the message and comply

Because cops don’t lie

 

I don’t go to church these days

I don’t much honor the president

I’m afraid of the police

I don’t trust the preacher

And I’m not sure about the teacher

Mama really didn’t know it

But I’ve learned as time goes by

Everybody lies

 

Except mama

Who did the best she could

To help her children survive

The Rule of Vlad

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: PUTIN & TRUMP

The Rule of Vlad

 

They shared a common enemies list

In a call between the best of friends

Discussed elections the rule of law

The GRU a fly on the wall

 

And the leader of the western world

Bowed down before his master

To praise his holy eminence

 

All praise the rule of Vlad

All praise the power of Putin

 

He holds the keys to the American dream

As our leader falls to his knees

He’ll do anything he’s told

Negotiations he will fold

 

All hail the Russian king

Demure the American underling

 

To undermine our next election

He advocates natural selection

 

The absence of guilt is not

A declaration of innocence

It proclaims the absence of shame

Solitude

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Solitude

 

In the misty haze of solitude

A change has enveloped my soul

I am no longer who I was

In the lost days of plenty

In the days we thought

Would last forever

 

I felt I needed no one then

I was an island in a flowing river

I had my love my family my closed

Circle of friends my chosen few

 

My circle is open now

Like blossoms in the heart of spring

I have discovered interdependency

While mortality has discovered me

 

In the solitude of forced confinement

The circles have found new order

The layers of protection break away

The layers of deception shatter

 

We are all fragile beings

In the loneliness of night

Yearning for connection

Yearning for common bonds

Yearning to understand

And to be understood

 

In the crisis of forced solitude

We are all the same

We want we need we hurt

We are vulnerable and exposed

Reaching for hands beyond our reach

Pleading for those we need

Still

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Still

 

The air is still

Like a silence of the soul

No gentle summer breeze

To soothe our restless spirits

To comfort us with ease

 

The waves of heat bear down

To take away our breaths

We count the days by numbers

By days we count the deaths

 

The earth itself is sickened

By the state of our affairs

It’s so hard to feed the spirit

When you can’t bring yourself to care

 

The wind has howled long and hard

The rain has hammered home

The sun beats down in cries of fate

The very heavens exasperate

 

We may as well spell the wind

As wait for better days

 

The air grows still

Take comfort where you will

Civil War

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: THE RESISTANCE

Civil War

 

Never before has a commander in chief

Declared war on American cities

 

Communities beware

Federal troops are coming to your town

To terrify your people

Teargas your mayor

Pummel your protesters

And send waves of fear

Through the suburban nation

 

By virtue of his supreme intellect

He declares your city a terror zone

A bastion of subversive thugs

A pit of moral depravity

A magnet for scum and criminals

 

People of Portland take heed

People of Albuquerque beware

People of Kansas City take warning

People of Chi Town watch out

The troops are coming

To explain what it’s all about

 

There’s an election down the road

And he’s a law and order man

A failure at everything he’s touched

So on this he’ll make a stand

 

He does not care who is harmed

If you dare stand in his way

He needs the television footage

To prove our state of decay

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