The Flag

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

The Flag

 

Do you support the flag?

Depends on what you mean

The flag has come to mean

Many things to many people

If you mean

Do I support the USA?

Then yes I do

Do I support democracy

Equal treatment under the law

Freedom of opportunity

Freedom of speech

Freedom to assemble

The right to vote

The right of a woman to choose?

(ah, there’s the rub

For I see the hesitation in your eyes

The same hesitation that comes into mine

On the right to bear arms)

 

Do I support the flag?

It is but a symbol

Like all symbols it can be bent

To any shape and form

Do I support America?

I do

Without pause or doubt

Do you?

 

Morita

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

Morita

 

She stalks me

She hunts me down

She watches me

She knows who my friends are

She watches them

She hunts them down as well

 

Her eyes are dark as muddy waters

Her heart cold as winter’s night

I loved her once

I fell under her spell

I was young and unafraid

 

She did not hunt me then

She did not stalk

She did not lurk in the shadows

Or beneath the shroud of dark

She teased me with her mystery

I breathed her misty air

I drank from her well

I tasted her passion

And begged for more

 

Her danger enchanted me

Her intrigue pulled me in

Alas she chose another

And lowered her web

 

It was then that I recoiled

She did not inspire love

She consumed it

She did not create beauty

She destroyed it

 

It was then I learned her name

Though I cannot speak it even now

She haunts me

She hunts me down

She takes us one by one

She frightens all she touches

Yet we cannot despise her

Cannot deny her

Without her there is nothing

She is that which injects meaning

Into our lives

 

She knows I will call her

When I am ready

She is always there

Waiting patiently

In shadows

 

Lukashenko of Belarus

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Lukashenko of Belarus

 

Never was a man so proud

Of a legacy of hate

He is oblivious to the fact

That infamy is his fate

 

Not even Putin is so bold

As to flaunt his cold mendacity

If he wasn’t such a monster

His story would elicit pity

 

That Lukashenko is an ogre

Is plain for all to behold

He spoils the very air he breathes

His power he has sold

 

It is time for every dictator

To dissolve into the sunset

Let him walk upon the waters

Just to see if he gets wet

Innocent Dead

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Innocent Dead

 

On this day of remembrance

We are called to mourn

The loss of so many lives

Office workers

First responders

The ones who fell

The ones who survived

We remember them all

With a sense of dread

We remember the innocent dead

 

We recall the horror unleashed that day

We remember the fire brigade

The heroic actions of New York’s best

The unconscionable price they paid

 

We recall the chaos the sirens scream

Unfolding as if in a dream

On this day of mourning

We hang our heads

We remember the innocent dead

 

Eleven September

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

Eleven September

 

The eleventh of September

A day we’ll always remember

A day of infamy

Like a symphony of horror

 

The day Americans united

In fear and trepidation

The day we became overtly

A vengeful warrior nation

 

It was early morn in California

When the first plane hit the tower

We knew somehow it was intended

A play for global power

 

Our president cried out Revenge!

They named the enemy bin Laden

How they knew that name so quickly

Is a mystery we’ve forgotten

 

We went to war in Afghanistan

Though they offered him a trial

We could not hear appeals to reason

It would have to wait a while

 

We moved on to Iraq

Before the dust had cleared

Iraq became the nightmare

So many of us feared

 

Two decades have gone by now

Since the towers fell that day

We remember it with horror

As the day we lost our way

The Day John Lennon Died

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

The Day John Lennon Died

 

On the day John Lennon was shot down

Outside the Dakota Hotel

On Central Park West

In the heart of Manhattan

Like a common criminal

Or a rapper on the wrong side of town

A song was written in Liverpool

Three singers harmonized in Nashville

The final chapter wrote itself

In the life of a troubadour on the run

Outside of Boulder Colorado

A dancer found her groove

A native movement was born

On the third and fourth mesa

In the Great Navaho Reservation

In Arizona and New Mexico

Where a circle of shamans

Smoked a pipe of peace

And a child took his first breath

In a corner drugstore on Bleeker Street

 

Life goes on the wise man says

Life goes on

 

Sequoias

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

Sequoias

 

The magnificent Sequoias of California

Are now an endangered species

A twenty-year drought drained the lifeblood

And the fires reduced them to kindling

 

Cry not for these majestic creatures

Though they have stood for a million years

Cry for those who will never behold

In all their glory and towering strength

The pounding pulse of their eternal grace

 

Cry for all humankind

Entrusted with their care

Cry for the forest and all the life

Dependent on the Sequoia cover

Cry for the father of all beings

Cry for the earthly mother

 

We are witnessing the final days

Of one of nature’s greatest miracles

And we know as a mother knows her child

It is only the beginning

 

Denial and Rage

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

 

Denial and Rage

 

When someone you love gets covid

You do not want to accept it

It cannot be

You took all the precautions

You did all the right things

You considered others

You watched your step

You vaccinated

You wore the mask

You dined outside

You did not attend large gatherings

 

You faltered once or twice

Is that all it took?

One simple misstep

One walk on the wrong side

Of the street

 

Some random conspiracy theorist

Some antivax zealot

Some fool without a mask

Invades your breathing space

And you contract the disease

You become the victim

You become a carrier

Of denial and rage

 

Inequity

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Inequity

 

He does not deserve this indignity

He does not deserve this disgrace

When a man of honor is victimized

The house of equity is out of place

 

We may look back on this day

And despise those who did not care

Enough to compromise their freedom

Bringing our right to life to bear

 

Are they so blind to the consequence

Of giving the virus room to grow

Of refusing to listen to science

Of being proud not to know

 

You’ve taken too many mothers and fathers

You’ve taken too many sons and daughters

The great pandemic should be over

But you believed in four-leaf clovers

 

Go away and take your family

Go away and take your friends

Thanks to you the plague lives on

Thanks to you there is no end

 

Fire & Floods

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

 

Fire & Floods

 

Rain floods the east coast

From Philly to Manhattan

Get out of the way if you’re able

Find shelter if you can

 

Fires rage in California

Pristine Lake Tahoe in the path

Testing our perseverance

Challenging nature’s wrath

 

Punishing heat pounds New Orleans

In the wake of a hurricane

The people survive without power

Though their will to live wanes

 

The days of reckoning are upon us

It arrives in seven waves

Fire wind rain and pestilence

All combine to induce rage

 

We can walk in place no longer

It is time to raise the roof

No longer can we be passive

We can no longer be aloof

 

If this is the final hour

If these are the final days

Let it be said I was impassioned

Let it be said my part I played

 

The Ganges (River Series)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RIVER SERIES

The Ganges

 

The Ganges is a sacred river

To millions of Hindu followers

The embodiment of a goddess

They bathe in its sacred waters

 

They bury their dead in the Ganges

They dispose their sewage and waste

After centuries of endless pollution

The Ganges is a hopeless case

 

It was meant to purify humans

So the Hindu legends tell

But humans poisoned the Ganges

Turning heaven into earthly hell

 

Let us pray it is not too late

To turn the Ganges around

To cleanse the sacred waters

And reclaim a hallowed ground

 

Military Madness

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AFGHAN WAR

Military Madness

 

Three presidents elected on a promise

To leave behind the mess in Afghanistan

The military managed to ignore two

The third took a hard stand:

Get out of Afghanistan!

 

So now they take turns in a public lament:

We betrayed our allies and friends

Said what we said meant what we meant

America fights to the bitter end!

Look what happened in Vietnam!

Look what happened in Iraq!

It’s as if you don’t even give a damn!

 

To which our president proclaimed:

Exactly! Now bow your heads in shame!

You lied to Afghans when you said forever

We lied to our own when we said never

Again would we send soldiers to war

When we don’t really know what it’s for

We got our revenge we slaughtered AQ

After that we didn’t know what to do

 

You had three terms to get it done

Now you act like you’re oh so stunned

You didn’t even give it a try

So now it’s on you when people die

And still we don’t know why

 

 

Ida: New Orleans Survives

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

Ida

 

Memories of Katrina haunt me

As if it happened yesterday

I want to scream at the TV screen:

Get out! You’re in the way!

 

Ida is category two and churning

From Havana to New Orleans

The roads are all jammed

The people are under warning

The fires of Hades burning

 

Will Ida hit like Katrina did?

Will the authorities be unprepared?

Will the lower ninth be flooded?

Will our sense of outrage be shared?

 

We have entered an age of tragedy

It often feels like the end of days

The chain of horrors relentless

Seems our legs are made of clay

 

New Orleans Survives

 

Ida hit the Gulf Coast hard

Like a bombardment of missiles

Like at twenty-foot wave

Like the breath of an angry god

Full of wrath wind and rain

 

The power died before nightfall

Leaving those who stayed behind

Hiding seeking shelter inside

They would baton down the hatches

They would fight back the storm

They would protect their belongings

They would protect their homes

They would do what they could

But the storm kept rolling

Churning like a beast

Spreading mass destruction

Like the Saint’s final feast

 

The people of New Orleans

Know they’re lucky to be alive

They have fought through the years

Self-assured they would survive

 

It’s not a war zone like Kabul

It’s not the end of a long drive

It’s a place where a culture

And its music still thrives

 

So help them through this crisis

As they suffer and we cry

We will do what it takes

To help New Orleans survive

The Congo (River Series)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RIVER SERIES

 

The Congo

 

You can hear the drums of the Congo

As if they were moving near

Charging western imagination

Filling our hearts with fear

 

Tarzan was lost in the jungle

That was fed by the Congo River

Where animals were wild and fierce

Making civilized people shiver

 

Alas the Congo was mostly myth

Invented by western writers

Reality is far more subtle

Than strange uncivilized fighters

 

The Congo feeds an abundant life

Its wildness is its glory

Without it so much life would cease

To shorten the planet’s story

 

The Nile (River Series)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RIVER SERIES

The Nile

 

The longest river on the planet

It shaped the lives of ancient Egypt

Gave birth to modern agriculture

Challenged our sense of entitlement

 

Cleopatra floated her royal barge

Down the waters of the River Nile

Mark Anthony and Julius Caesar

Made history for Shakespeare’s file

 

The granddaddy of African rivers

It feeds eleven modern nations

From Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean

It enabled an advanced civilization

 

Oh how we revere the River Nile

For its storied and mythical past

The river runs with an eternal force

Forever and always will it last

 

The Yangtze (River Series)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RIVER SERIES

The Yangtze  

 

The longest river in Asia

Among the longest on the planet earth

As the birthplace of their civilization

The Chinese value its worth

 

The Yangtze gives and the Yangtze takes

Its yellow waters are a blessing

It is known for frequent flooding

Yet the people have learned its lessons

 

Some call it the river of sorrow

For it has claimed a great many lives

Yet the people give their humble thanks

For with the river all wildlife thrives

 

Mercenaries

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AFGHAN WAR

 

Mercenaries

 

Independent contractors

They don’t like to be called mercenaries

They don’t like to be called hired guns

Killers for pay

Have gun will travel

They answer to no one

They have no code of honor

They are torturers and war criminals

They are as old as war itself

 

So while we extend our forces

To evacuate diplomats allies and soldiers

Shed no tears for the mercenaries

Spill no blood for their safety

Let them find their own way home

 

One wonders what war would look like

If there were no hired guns