Hunger in America

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

 

Hunger in America

 

Hunger in America has always been

Denial is the American way

Food insecurity is a euphemism

Like eccentricity for madness

It does not describe the truth

The way a stomach tightens

In the throes of hunger

It does not describe

How the mind fogs over

And all thought centers on food

It does not describe

The shame of mothers and fathers

When a child goes hungry at night

 

Hunger is like a drug addiction

It gnaws at your humanity

It drags you to the gutter

It makes you plead

Like a common beggar

It transforms you into someone

You no longer know

 

So don’t belittle it with euphemism

Its name is hunger

It is one step short of starvation

It is a time of desperate yearning

 

(an estimated 35 to 50 million Americans

will experience hunger during the pandemic)

Free Peltier

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: NATIVE JUSTICE

Free Peltier

 

Now that you’ve broken new ground

Appointing a native American

To the council of the Great White Fathers *

An injustice remains to be righted

The last prisoner of the Indian wars

The last heart buried at Wounded Knee **

A man of Lakota blood and pride

Remains in a white man’s cage

Suffering the ravages of disease

Humbled by the indignities of age

Leonard Peltier cries out once again ***

With what was a young man’s rage: 

 

Let me walk once more on native soil

Let me stand once more free and brave

Admit no wrong if it pleases you

Show compassion if you will

But let me not spend another minute

For the men I did not kill

 

(* Deb Haaland was nominated to serve

in the Biden cabinet. ** The Siege of

Wounded Knee 1973. *** Imprisoned

in 1977, he is 76 today.)

 

Christmas is Canceled (for Boris Johnson)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Christmas is Canceled

 

All the children are bundled

In their bright Christmas best

From the wise in the east

To the jolly Midwest

From the churches down south

To the folks in their vests

We’re all ready to celebrate

A holiday fest

 

But the man in the kingdom

Whom they call the premier

Interrupts the good tidings

And all the great cheer

He looks straight in the camera

And says with a tear

Haven’t you heard?

Christmas is canceled this year

 

My oh my what a fright

What a terrible thing

The children can’t play

And the angels can’t sing

Our Santa’s can’t jolly

And the bells dare not ring

There are no more elves

No flying reindeer

Christmas is canceled this year

 

But out of the darkness

And into the light

The spirit of Christmas

Comes into sight

It soothes all the children

And says do not fear

Christmas is in the heart this year

 

Intentional Negligence

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Intentional Negligence

 

To all who lost loved ones to Covid-19

Does it help to know their intentions

To infect the young and healthy

To encourage the viral spread

To achieve herd immunity

To secure a second term?

 

Does it help to know they didn’t mean

To kill the vulnerable and elderly?

Does it help to know they didn’t care?

 

Whether intentional or folly

They did their best to spread it around

To infect as many as they could

To keep the markets thriving

Until Election Day

 

After that who knows?

It no longer mattered

It was all about the man on top

The man in the golden mirror

The man with a deep psychological need

To best the best and stay in power

The man of every hour

No matter how many died

 

From Moscow with Love

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

From Moscow with Love

 

You poisoned Navalny

We tracked the killer down

You hacked our institutions

We spread the word around

You delivered a puppet president

Whom you ruled from up above

Now you bid us a fond farewell

From Moscow with love

 

You have many of our secrets

And access to the rest

Someday when it matters

You’ll deliver us a test

How much will we offer

When push comes to shove

Chechnya and Ukraine?

From Moscow with love

 

 

Without Fear

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Without Fear

 

Should I walk through this life

Without fear without worry

Should I walk a long road

Never doubt never hurry

 

In these trying times I’ve learned

Without fear I would not survive

Without a healthy dose of doubt

I would likely not be alive

 

Fear leads me away from danger

Doubt keeps me safe at home

It is a time that values caution

It is not a time to roam

 

So let the singer praise the valiant

Who bravely cast their lives away

I will praise the cautious ones

Who bravely choose to stay

 

The Execution of Ruhollah Zam

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL JUSTICE

The Execution of Ruhollah Zam

 

The execution of Ruhollah Zam

Lands a death blow to Iran

In its hopes to restore relations

Between Tehran and western nations

 

Whatever hopes we might have had

Have gone to worse from bad

Iran must walk a lonely road

For violating a moral code

 

Journalists thou shall not kill

For if you do good nations will

Abandon you on every path

Gifting you our righteous wrath

 

We must assure a price to pay

To advance there is no other way

If you defy most basic rights

We must oppose you in this fight

 

Corona Christmas

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Corona Christmas

 

When I was young and brave

I dreamed of being a troubadour

A writer of dreams

A man of letters

A poet and master creator

A man of substance and means

 

I rode that dream to faraway lands

Where art and artists reigned

Where everything was novel

Where everyone had character

Where no one had plans

Beyond tomorrow

 

I remember Christmas

Far from my home

No family no friends

On Christmas alone

 

The dream slowly faded

Like the end of a story

I grabbed my moment

and then it was gone

I awakened surrounded

by family and friends

But I wonder at times

When did the dream end?

 

I remember Christmas

So far from my home

No friends no family

On Christmas alone

 

Now I’m back in a dream

Locked down in my home

No family no friends

On Christmas alone

 

(NYC circa 1975)

 

The Silence (A Long Dark Winter)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

The Silence

 

A Sunday walk in the park

Fallen leaves adorn the earth

A mere whisper of wind

Accentuates the void

The absence of sound

A muffling of noise

 

The last geese have gone

Predators are in hiding

A distant drone of transport

More distant and subdued

And the workers who once toiled

Without rest or respite

Now sit in their quiet homes

Together and alone

 

The world is on sabbatical

The sound of labor is on hold

No sounds of celebration

No children playing 

No singers or musicians 

No dancers dancing

To raise our sullen spirits

No chatter of sidewalk cafes

No sudden bursts to amaze

 

The joy and sorrow of silence

Has invaded our daily lives

To soothe our senses

To send our thoughts in flight

As if to prepare us

For a long dark winter

Night

 

 

The Last Man (Presidential Lies)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

The Last Man

 

A young soldier asked congress

A question that ached

Echoed in the chambers

Of a war we would forsake

Who will be the last man

To die for a mistake?

 

Fifty years later we don our masks

As we await our turn to finally ask

Who will be the last to die

For this president’s lie?

 

We should know by now

What we should have known then

Wars are started by greedy men

Who wish to control the planet

Every stone every garden every

Mountain of granite

 

From a line in the sand

To the Gulf of Ton-kin

Erased from the history of

A war we could not win

 

LBJ is forgiven now

But the question will remain

Like a mourning mother’s cry

Like an indelible stain

How many soldiers died

For a president’s lie?

 

That brings us back to today

And the question is why

 

Why did so many die

For a presidential lie?

 

Locked Out (Looking In)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

 

Locked Out

 

In Paris London and Berlin

They fight a virus not a sin

They look at us with woeful doubt

They’re locked in and we’re locked out

 

From Manhattan to LA

We let the virus have its way

Now we let it run its course

As we bow our heads and pray

 

We are at least a world apart

We have known it from the start

They are governed by the mind

We are governed by the heart

 

In Paris London and Berlin

It’s a war they know they’ll win

From Manhattan to LA

We’re locked out and looking in

 

Juxtaposition (The Poor and the Wealthy)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: SOCIAL JUSTICE

 

Juxtaposition

 

The Dow soars to an all-time high

While the poor que up in food lines

The needy live in humility

But the wealthy are feeling just fine

 

A sparkling day in the lush green valley

The harvest has turned into wine

Farmworkers are counting their pennies

Rich farmers are doing just fine

 

In a land of great wealth and plenty

It seems futile for me to opine

The homeless are suffering greatly

While the privileged are doing just fine

 

The rich grow richer the poor stay poor

I know it’s a timeless cliché

But the saying never rang truer

Than it rings this cold winter day

 

It’s not just the poor but the workers

Who take any jobs they can find

We make the best of what we have

But the wealthy are doing just fine

 

(Comments welcome!)

 

The Lesson

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

The Lesson

 

A generation of hardship

A generation denied

Living through the virus

Leaves a longing inside

Millions left homeless

Millions have died

Doctors defied and

Leaders who lied

 

It might have been better

It might have been worse

A dangerous virus

Became a human curse

 

We will always remember

The day the world turned

The question now is:

What have we learned?

 

Will we handle it better?

Will we be more prepared?

Will we choose a leader

Who actually cares?

 

Will we pull together

Against a common foe?

Or will we let our differences

Divide and grow?

 

Holiday Lockdown

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Holiday Lockdown

 

The Black Plague the Spanish Flu

These are the times we’re living through

 

Is it so hard to understand?

There’s a scourge upon the land

 

Should we behave how we desire?

Would we walk into a blazing fire?

 

As the vaccine is being prepared

Let us act as if we cared

 

It’s one more holiday lockdown

Maybe soon we can all go to town

 

To do the things we’ve missed

Kiss all the babes we didn’t kiss

 

Celebrate till the sun goes down

Pass the bottle all around

 

Until then we can wait

This time next year: it’s a date

 

Solidarity (One and All)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

Solidarity

 

When we march we are one

One cause one movement one mind

There is no space between us

We will not get out of line

 

When we think we are one

Separate independent and apart

We march to the same rhythm

We feel with distinct hearts

 

When it comes to bringing change

Solidarity is an essential thing

But when it comes to free expression

Let us find a voice that sings

 

To the music in our souls

To the thunder in our ears

Let us find the voice that sings

If it takes a thousand years

 

The Virus Marches On

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

March On

 

They denied the truth of science

It was just another flu

When it killed a hundred thousand

They denied that it was true

 

They’re fighting the election now

Some are angry some are stunned

While our hearts are seeking solace

The virus marches on

 

But science is still standing

It will be there when we’re gone

While the president is whining

The virus marches on

 

A bitter winter is upon us

In the silence before the dawn

Huddled masses draw together

As the virus marches on

How I wish that it was over

I have wished it for so long

But our strength is being tested

As the virus marches on