Prayers for India

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Prayers for India

 

Prayers for India

Prayers for Delhi

The predator has found

A most fertile hunting ground

Poverty squalor overcrowding

It is not religion

It is not faith

It is not the will of god

It is science and mathematics

It is numbers and space

Too many people

Too few hospitals

Too little care

A draconian lockdown

Punished the poor

Without relief

Without preparation

To fight an airborne enemy

That has no politics

That has no pride or prejudice

And the people of India suffer

And perish as they do

In Rio de Janeiro and the barrios

Wherever poverty overcrowding

and superstition prevail

Bollywood is closed

The curtain has lowered

The beautiful people

In their colorful costumes

Sing and dance no more

 

Oppression

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GEORGE FLOYD SERIES

Oppression                                                                                                     

 

Oppression is not a flash of lightning

The heavy hammer of abuse

It is not the swift slice of a sharp blade

Or the sting of pounding blow

 

Oppression is a dull throbbing ache

Always present never fading

Always building like waves of heat

 

Oppression never reaches its crescendo

With the end of day or the fall of night

 

Oppression is a constant haunting

Like the shadow of a thousand miseries

In a hospice or a funeral home

 

It is a pall that never lifts

A pain that has no remedy

A ghost in living flesh

 

To live with oppression

Is to be imprisoned without bars

In agony without relief

In perpetual apprehension

Of the days and nights ahead

 

Oppression in its purest sense

Is to be oppressor and oppressed

In an endless cycle of horror

Return to Kind

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

Return to Kind

 

Somewhere on the blue highways

Of my mind

I remember hearing this fertile valley

Was once a barren desert

 

All things return to kind

What once was will be again

The dam will give way

The river will run its course

The forest will reclaim the cities

The irrigated desert will return to sand

And we poor humans will return

Kicking and screaming like banshees

On a moonlit night

To our more natural lives

 

Our towers will topple

Civilizations decline

Earth will reclaim her majesty

In the richness of time

 

Bravado

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Bravado

 

We are all subject to the laws of physics

We cannot opt out

We cannot object on moral grounds

The sun will rise

The moon will follow

Young folks reach for the sky

Old folks like fallen fruit must die

Don’t ask why

Don’t ask why

 

You can curse the stars for shining

You can purge what rests within

You can dwell in sorrow’s garden

You can argue with the wind

 

A single truth survives the ages

Upon this you can depend

The greatest lesson in this life

Comes at its very end

 

It’s the moment when you realize

A mere flash before the fall

Your courage in the face of death

Wasn’t bravery at all

 

Kanye West

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POLITICS

Kanye West                                                                                       

 

They say you’re a genius

But I just don’t see it

If you’re a true master

Don’t act it be it

I know you can rap

But you ain’t close to the best

If you’re a stooge for the White House

You don’t pass the test

 

When you stood up to Bush

You earned political cred

But when you stood up for Donald

You earned nothing but dread

You better look at what’s happening

On the streets of the nation

Then look at who’s serving

Your race invocation

You may think you know better

You may think you know best

But there’s no bigger fool

Than Kanye West

 

Yeah you think you’re so cool

You let yourself be used

To betray your own people

Who have been much abused

You may have all the money

But you’re lesser than less

Ain’t nobody worse

Than Kanye West

 

Little Girl

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  VISIONS

Little Girl

 

Little girl little girl

What dreams will you dream

Will you dance in the heavens

Will you play on the team

Will you find true love

To help you along

Will you always be willing

To sing your own song

Have you set your sights

On a future of gold

Will you climb a tall mountain

Before you get old

Will you find that life

Is not quite what it seemed

Little girl little girl

What dreams will you dream

 

Little Boy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: VISIONS

Little Boy

 

Little boy little boy

What will you be

Will you work in the fields

Will you sail on the sea

Will you run for high office

Will you march on the streets

Will you conquer an army

Will you manage defeat

Will you take what you’re given

Will you settle for less

Will you value the truth

Will your deeds be blessed

Will you still find joy

In moments of glee

Little boy little boy

What will you be

 

Old Woman

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: VISIONS

Old Woman

 

Old woman old woman

Will you look back on the years

Will you reside in yesterday

Will you dry your mournful tears

Will you search lost memories

For better times and better ways

Leave your worries behind

Let your problems fade away

Will you find the lord above

Will you move on or will you stay

Where you’re most loved

Where you’re most safe

Will you stop and take stock

Of all the things you did not say

All the stories left untold

All the debts you did not pay

When you got old and it got late

The morning light turned to gray

And you accepted sorrow’s fate

Old woman old woman

Will you look back with tears

 

Old Man

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: VISIONS

 

Old Man

 

Old man old man

What can you do

You have lived your life

You must now say adieu

Will you retreat inside

Will you push the world away

Will you plead for one last ride

One last plan to go astray

You had so many chances

To change what went wrong

But you were lost in your world

You were tossed in your song

Now you’ve made your bed and garden

It’s too late to change the end

You look back on your deeds

And the wreck you must defend

They will turn the world over

They will make the earth anew

Old man old man

What can you do

 

Young Woman

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: VISIONS

 

Young Woman

 

Young woman young woman

What path will you take

Will you bury the past

This world to forsake

Will you forgive all those

Who shook the earth to its core

Will you seek a new start

Will you open a door

Will you burn the bridge behind you

Will you bid us farewell

When you have your own children

What stories will you tell

About those who came before you

Who forgot the ones to come

Who were blind to the future

To the past deaf and dumb

What love will you harbor

What hearts will you break

Young woman young woman

What path will you take

 

Young Man

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  VISIONS

Young Man

 

Young man young man

Oh where will you go

What future do you see

What seeds will you sow

This world has turned inside out

You would have to be a fool

If you were not filled with doubt

Everything you see and touch

Everything you feel and know

Scattered like the dust

The way the wind blows

We have taken your world

Flipped it on its head

Due to our neglect

Millions are dead

Does it matter that we’re sorry

Does it matter we regret

We are like the lost horizon

Won’t be here to pay the debt

Young man young man

Oh where will you go

 

Faces of Covid 19

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Faces of Covid 19

 

They are only numbers

Digital abstractions

Statistical notations

Lines on a graph

Check marks on a page

They yield no emotion

Something less than real

Until the numbers have faces

Friends and families

 

A mother from La Jolla

Her children called her Santa Marie

A gifted athlete from Chicago

Could have made the major leagues

A promising poet from Omaha

With a dream of living overseas

A grandfather from Los Angeles

Do we mourn the elderly?

A golden child from down the street

Who’ll never know the vagaries

Of life and love and victories

Stolen by this cursed disease

 

Dark Shadows

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Dark Shadows

 

They crawl out of the cracks

Of America’s nightmare

Loom in the hazy background

Watching with great care

Ready to pounce

Spinning a lair

Taking a life

On a dare

 

They mark the path of the fools parade

Follow those who do not know

Who did not care

Go with the flow

A defiant stare

All for the show

Too much to bear

 

They carry a seed of deadly disease

Steals your breath away

Make you weak and feeble

Make your body sway

It has the number

You must pay

The shadow knows

The shadow grows

So bow your head

And pray

 

Irony

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: 2020 ELECTION

Irony

 

Our president is a civil rights candidate

(he sponsors the great disenfranchisement)

He’s a champion of women’s rights

(who never heard of the ERA)

He stands for the little guy

(minimum income 500 K)

He got us out of the Middle East wars

(without removing our presence there)

He faced down the great pandemic

(180,000 dead and counting)

He rebuilt a failing economy

(rescued Wall Street with borrowed cash)

He is the greatest president since Lincoln

(the worst since Herbert Hoover)

He will save us from ourselves

(or will he fool us once again)

 

The Great Instigator

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  GEORGE FLOYD SERIES

The Great Instigator

 

The leader of the western world

Is coming to your town

To put on a show

To “settle things down”

 

Don’t mind all the thugs

They’re here to protect you

If you wear the right hat

They won’t disconnect you

 

For I am the chosen

The great instigator

And I am the righteous

The truth propagator

 

We’ll mow down the protesters

And put order back in place

With blacks on the bottom

On the top the white race

 

For I am the chosen

The great instigator

And I am the righteous

The white liberator

 

The Burden

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

The Burden

 

The young carry the burden

The old must leave behind

What greater burden could be left

Than the one that we now find

 

A generation of negligence

We’re the ones who forgot the world

We sought out our own adventures

While the earth’s demise unfurled

 

We didn’t mean for it to happen

We just forgot to ask

About our role as caretakers

We neglected our basic task

 

You have a right to be angry

We handed you this mess

We can say we didn’t know

We’re not guilty we protest

 

We were seeking higher consciousness

And for some it may be true

But we failed to hold the horror back

Failed to push change through

 

Bubble World

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Bubble World

 

I have seen the future

A strange and foreign view

A vision of fear and separation

A world not brave but new

 

It began when a virus

Spiraled out of control

Then protest brought violence

That compromised our souls

 

So the wealthy took refuge

In bubbles of their own device

Self-sufficient isolation

Purged of disease and blight

 

They created a bubble

To keep the riffraff away

When the virus was vanquished

They kept it that way

 

Why take any chances

If you feel a bit wary

And you’ve got enough money

It’s not necessary

 

Live your life in a bubble

No worries or fears

Protected and guarded

From anger and jeers

 

Rest in Peace

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

 

Rest in Peace

 

When one we admire

Or one we love

Falls from this earthly realm

It is with compassion and love

We respond

Rest in peace

 

One wonders in reflection

If that is what the fallen desires

When an individual has spent a lifetime

Fighting for justice

Fighting for peace

Fighting against the hard fist of oppression

Is it eternal peace one desires

 

When I travel to the world beyond

(as I choose to believe there is such a place)

I do not wish to spend forever in peace

I do not wish to rest in perpetuity

 

Rest in peace may do for others

Not for me

I wish to be challenged

I desire to move forward

I strive to rise above

 

Therefore when I rise or fall

From this mortal existence

Let those who love me

Or hold me in esteem

Not wish that I should rest in peace

But that I should gather the strength

In death that I had in life

To continue the fight

 

For there will always be darkness

And there will always be light

Let me stand my ground

With the good and the right

Danger Zone

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Danger Zone

 

Hundreds gathered onto the South Lawn

Of the peoples house

For the president’s big night

Hundreds flaunted their recklessness

Daring the virus to strike them down

Talking in close quarters

Cheering embracing shaking hands

Like madmen at the devil’s ball

Like lambs for the slaughter

What folly is this?

The sheer brazenness of their defiance

Is this the face of courage?

Is it brave to walk the ledge

Of a nine story building?

Shall we cry for those who fall?

Shall we mourn their loss?

Shall we salute them

And give testament

That they died for their beliefs?

That they died for their beloved leader?

Or shall we shake our heads in shame?