Zelensky II

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS (UKRAINE)

Zelensky II

 

He hunkers down below

As the war rages above

His face is pale with worry

For the people that he loves

 

He risks his life by staying

Yet he will not be dissuaded

Not a soul alive would blame him

But his resolve has never faded

 

The good people of Ukraine

Their hearts are filled with pride

Their leader is both good and strong

And the world is on their side

 

The soldiers of the invaders

Know that they are in the wrong

They will be painted as monsters

They will be vilified in song

 

This is a moment of truth

It is not a tragic play

If you come upon Zelensky

Turn around and walk away

 

The End of Abstraction

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS (UKRAINE)

 

The End of Abstraction

 

A darling little girl

Laying still in a hospital bed

A moment captured on camera

The little girl lay dead

 

Her father is not pictured

Her mother is in tears

Her sorrow belongs to all now

The worst of all our fears

 

War used to be an abstraction

Printed words on a page

Now it’s all up close and personal

We are in the digital age

 

There have been many wars before

Unprovoked and unjustified

But only rarely have we observed

The faces of those who died

 

This war belongs to Putin

It might have been Iraq

Now the world has been awakened

Time to halt and take stock

 

Propaganda Failure

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Propaganda Failure

 

When the propaganda fails

We wonder if it ever worked at all

Did the people just pretend to believe?

Did they go along to avoid punishment?

Were they waiting for the chance

To express the truth?

 

That they never did believe

That they knew the truth all along

That the dictator was lying

That his hold was not that strong

That he stole the people’s money

Stashed in foreign banks

Buying castles and glorious yachts

As well as missiles bombs and tanks

They knew it from the start

He was a power-hungry brute

A man without a conscience

A man without a heart

 

The emperor has no clothes

No courage and no strength

The emperor does not care

Who suffers or who dies

He will go to any length

To gain his fame and fortune

To claim his brutal prize

 

He is naked and exposed

His reputation grows

And everybody knows

His game

Annihilation

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS (UKRAINE)

Annihilation

 

The Ukrainians need our help

They want our boots on the ground

But that is a risky measure

That would render the world unsound

 

For while Putin may be mad

He possesses nuclear power

That could reduce the earth to dust

And set in motion our last hour

 

Putin’s Russia is a rogue nation

We will do all that we can

But we can’t risk annihilation

By combat hand to hand

 

We must rely on sanctions

To put the despot in his place

For this world may not survive

His assault on the human race

 

Resistance

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS (UKRAINE)

Resistance

 

In the face of an aggressor

Against the fiercest foe

The people gather together

Their numbers begin to grow

They feel the spirit move them

And they begin to sing

When the beast is at the gates

Resistance is everything

 

The odds are stacked against them

Their army is much too small

Their enemy is powerful

And still they stand up tall

For they know their cause is right

The bells of freedom ring

When invaders are at the gate

Resistance is everything

 

The war bears down upon them

They’ve come to kill them all

But they will never surrender

Until the last battle call

They’ll hold their heads up high

Like proud warriors or kings

In the face of the invaders

Resistance is everything

 

Sanctions

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS (UKRAINE)

Sanctions

 

Banished from the world of nations

Banished from the earth

All the money that is traced to him

That money has no worth

 

He might have a trillion rubles

Tucked away in hidden places

But what good is all that fortune

If he’s confined to darkened spaces?

 

Take his money and his treasure

Take it all in ample measure

Take his mettle and his spark

Steal his papers in the dark

 

Let him live without his wealth

Take his glory and his health

Make it suffer, let it hurt

Take his gold and give him dirt

 

The Isolated Authoritarian

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS 

 

The Isolated Authoritarian

 

He hides inside his castle

Looking out on the Siberian Sea

Shaking to his very bones

Afraid of what could be

If the virus came a hunting

The lords of tyranny

 

He has no faith in doctors

There is no one he will see

He lives inside his twisted mind

In fear of what might be

If the virus comes a knocking

At his castle by the sea

 

He cannot stop his shaking

He finds it hard to breathe

His enemies are lurking everywhere

In the shadows behind the trees

Paranoia creeps inside of him

The fear of what could be

When the virus comes a hunting

At his enclave by the sea

 

Zelensky (Courage Under Fire II)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Zelensky (Courage under Fire II)

 

He is target number one

The prime object of Putin’s wrath

He refuses to turn and run

His determination is steadfast

The dictator is enraged

By now it should have passed

Anxious to turn the page

How long can Ukraine last?

 

If courage under fire

Is a measure of a one’s worth

Then Zelensky takes his place

Among the bravest on earth

 

Where is Putin in this fight?

Sitting safely in his room

Watching monitors, giving orders

Turning Ukraine into a tomb

 

Many Voices (for Ukraine)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Many Voices

 

Voices converge on a singular message

Like a symphony of instruments

Like harmonics in a song

 

We march along the boulevard

Like soldiers in formation

A hundred thousand strong

 

We are the multitudes

We are the guiding force

We have been here all along

 

We were silent in our suffering

We were silent through the years

We have found among our voices

The voices of our tears

 

We march together side by side

We march for our salvation

No longer guided by our fears

We march to claim our nation

 

The Uprising

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

The Uprising

 

In Moscow and Vladivostok

In St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad

In towns and cities across Russia

The people rise in protest

Against the invasion of Ukraine

And the dictator shows his weakness

By arresting and detaining protesters

By the hundreds and the thousands

As he does with political opponents

As he does with dissidents

As he does with journalists

As he does with anyone who speaks

Truth to power

 

The Great Dictator is afraid of dissent

He is afraid of real journalism

He is afraid of political opposition

He is afraid of free speech

He is afraid the truth will leak out

That his support is as thin as paper

That his leadership depends on fear

 

The Great Dictator is falling

He has made a critical mistake

He learned nothing from Afghanistan

He learned nothing from Iraq

He learned nothing from the Cold War

He believes he is the magician

Who can turn back time

 

He is not a fool

He is ruthless

He is egocentric

And he is wrong

True Patriots

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

True Patriots

 

While you’re deriding Joe Biden

With your childish chants

And inept comparisons

Remember that it was Biden

Who withdrew from a twenty-year war

That Bush the younger started

And two successors failed to stop

We were the invaders then

And we answered the call

We were the occupiers then

And we took to the streets

Several million strong

 

Now you serve as cheerleaders

For the despicable Russian despot

As he bombs and bulldozes

His democratic neighbor

Now as the missiles fly over Kiev

You wonder which side to take

Or whether to take sides at all

 

Look to the streets of Moscow

Where the people rise in protest

Where they risk their lives for others

For the cause of freedom

For the hope of democracy

 

Look to the people of Ukraine

Who hunker down in resistance

To the foreign invaders

 

This is the face of patriotism

These are the hearts and souls

Of true patriots

 

Courage Under Fire

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Courage under Fire

 

“You will see our faces, not our spines.”

-- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

 

The Ukrainian people have pledged

To fight for their freedom

For their homes and their lands

For their independence from tyranny

 

They oppose the mighty army

Of the world’s great oppressor

They oppose the heartless

The monstrous the merciless

Leadership of the Great Dictator

 

They oppose imperialism

The politics of military conquest

The history of colonialism

 

They know they cannot defeat

This enemy on the battlefield

They cannot match the enemy’s

Missiles, tanks, and soldiers

Yet they can win by surviving

They can win by holding on

They can win by fighting back

By folding into the cracks

By exacting a daily cost

To the occupation of their land

 

As a great American* once said:

You can take hold of it

But how long can you hold it?

A decade?

A century?

A millennium?

 

When every day exacts a cost

In blood sweat and treasure

The outcome is most certain

You will lose this war

And you will go down in history

As the bloody evil tyrant

That you are

 

(* Paraphrasing B. Franklin)

Unity

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Unity

 

It takes a strongman

To unite the civilized world

In determined opposition

 

An act of bald aggression

Has achieved what was impossible

Only two short years ago

 

Vladimir the Great

Vladimir the Aggressor

Vladimir the War Criminal

Vladimir the Uniter

 

Vlad says war so step aside

All of Europe from Madrid to Brussels

From Lisbon to Paris

From London to Warsaw

From Ankara to Stockholm

From Budapest to Rome

From Prague to Berlin

Stands in unison to cry out No!

You shall not drive us back

Into the age of perpetual war!

No! you shall not conquer neighbors

Without paying a price!

No! you shall not disturb the world order!

You will withdraw from Ukraine

Or sacrifice your personal fortune!

You will withdraw from Ukraine

Or become the planet’s leading pariah!

You will withdraw from Ukraine

Or watch your people suffer!

 

The Russian people do not deserve this fate

The Ukrainian people deserve it less

Withdraw now and change your ways

 

Peace

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Peace

 

We have placed the boot of a human

foot on the surface of the moon

We have produced human likeness

in breathtaking accuracy

We have spanned the sea

with miracles of engineering

We have delivered the breath of light

to the darkest corners of the earth

We have dammed mighty rivers

and built towers to the stars

We have created masterworks

of literature, technology and art

We have eradicated deadly disease

and saved the buffalo from extinction

We have split the atom and harnessed

the awesome power of the sun

We have protected our wisest voices

and quieted the rage of superstition

We have built governments and

institutions to the stand the ages

yet we cannot stop nations

from destroying one another

in pursuit of power

in the madness of greed

in the desire for fame

 

Until we can exist in mutual respect

Until we can banish war forever

Until we can accomplish a just peace

We have achieved nothing

Mad Ramblings of a Dictator

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Mad Ramblings of a Dictator

 

The madman of the northern empire

Delivers a rambling history lesson

To an indifferent and astonished world

A prelude to invasion

A rationalization for aggression

An ultimatum of war

 

He vilifies Lenin and Gorbachev

The peacemakers of Russian history

He laments the collapse of the empire

The rusting away of the Iron Curtain

The fall of the Berlin wall

He laments the advance of civilization

and pines for the good old days

when the Soviets ruled with an iron fist

 

He believes in his twisted heart

that he is on the side of righteousness

that he is on the side of destiny

that all the world is wrong

and he alone is right

 

His madness is drawn in blood

His dream of a new empire is clear

He is a danger to the world

He is a danger to humanity

He is a danger to the planet

at a time we can least afford it

 

So Long Omicron Blues

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

So Long Omicron Blues

 

It ain’t over til it’s over

Said the leprechaun’s son

The great lady hasn’t sung

So the omicron ain’t done

 

I got the omicron blues

Comes in threes and twos

I got those omicron blues

Ain’t nothing we can do

 

We’ve got to carry on

We all know it’s been too long

We’re just ordinary folks

We were never that strong

 

They said give it a year

So we gave it two more

Pretty soon they’ll be saying

Give it three, give it four

 

I got the omicron blues

It comes in threes and fours

I got those omicron blues

We can’t take it anymore

 

We’re not quitters or losers

We’ll give it one more try

But there will come a time

We’ll go on with our lives