Till (on MLK Day)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CIVIL RIGHTS

Till (on MLK Day)

 

A fine young man of fourteen years

He came down from the Windy City

He walked into a southern town

Where he found a woman pretty

He might have whistled

He might have smiled

The woman was offended

She was of gentile breeding

He was from slaves descended

 

Her husband and his brother

Took the boy away

They beat him down and cut him up

Put a bullet in his brain

They threw his body in the river

Where it drifted several days

When they finally pulled the body out

His bruised and bloated remains

His mother swore they would remember

The young man they had slain

 

The shocking death that shook a mountain

That echoed on the Hill

The boy they beat and shot that day

By the name of Emmett Till

 

Deformity of the Soul

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Deformity of the Soul

 

Remember Richard, Lord of Gloucester

Killer of his nephews in the Tower

Whose deformity of the spine

Was so pronounced that dogs barked

As he approached them

 

Richard was a villain with a pleasing tune

He charmed his victims before the blade

 

It would be wrong to judge a man

By his physical deformity and yet…

Many lives would have been spared

Had Richard been judged by his

 

How much easier it would be if we

could recognize deformities of the soul

as readily as we do those of the body

for though they may not be clear to the eyes

they are exposed to the other senses

 

Those with deformed souls are clammy

to the touch, sour to the taste

There is a faint sound of moaning and

their smell is of rotting corpses

We need only get close enough to

touch, taste and smell them to know

and be forewarned

 

But who among us is brave enough

to venture so close and live?

 

El Paso

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

El Paso

 

The crisis in El Paso unfolds

Like a slow-motion catastrophe

A tsunami rolling over a coastal village

A hurricane in the ninth ward of New Orleans

A line of twisters rocking through tornado alley

A derailed freight train screeching with twisted metal

 

We see it coming

We observe it building to the moment of impact

We watch it unveiled in heart wrenching detail

but we are powerless to stop it

 

The freezing cold is moving down from the arctic

Barreling down like a Russian missile barrage

Honing in on the border of Texas and Mexico

Centering on the city of El Paso where hundreds

if not thousands of Nicaraguan asylum seekers

wait in huddled masses yearning to be free

Soon they will want only warmth and

shelter from the storm

 

We watch and wait from the other side

of our television screens

Pleading with people we do not know to

somehow come to their aid

Is there someone who can help?

Is there someone who can ease their suffering?

Or must we watch as we watched Katrina?

Must we watch as we watched Fukushima?

Must we watch as we watch so many

tragedies unfolding in slow motion from

the other side of the television screen? 

 

El Paso find your heart

El Paso find your empathy

Only you answer the call

Only you can ease the pain

 

The Fed

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ECONOMY

The Fed

 

Inflation fuels our economic woes

Higher and higher the interest rate goes

The Fed is determined to force a recession

A little more push and we’ll get a depression

 

The greatest economy the world ever knew

We put it all in one man’s hands

The world must wonder what he will do

No orchestra here, it’s a one-man band

 

As long as inflation goes higher and higher

He wants unemployment to rise

Like a man in a flood afraid of a fire

His worry blocks out his wise

 

It is time to replace the man of all fears

With someone who knows and cares*

Someone who sees the threat that is near

And who forces the wealthy to share

 

* Senator Elizabeth Warren

 

Survival of the Friendly

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Survival of the Friendly

 

Darwin claimed survival of the fittest

Ruled the evolutionary track

But survival of the friendly is another road

We can trace millennia back

 

Competition breeds a stronger race

For a fierce and brutal tribe

Cooperation leads a different place

For a strength that grows inside

 

The one way feeds the body

The other way feeds the mind

The first way suits the animal kingdom

The other suits humankind

 

In the days of the primitive man

Our species had to be strong

But in the time of space technology

That approach is often wrong

 

On the scale of planetary health

If our species is to thrive

We must all of us work together

To enhance our chances to survive

 

Bolsonaro in Florida

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Bolsonaro in Florida

 

Bolsonaro bolted

Lula de Silva won the election

Bolsonaro went to Florida

Was he greeted by DeSantis?

Fellow vaccination denier

Fellow virus minimizer

Did they toast the people they fooled?

Did they celebrate the truth they buried?

Did they mourn the people lost?

 

Did he join the Don at Mar-a-Lago?

Did they bring in the new year?

Did they plot the death of democracy?

Did they wonder what went wrong?

 

The new autocrats – Bolsonaro, DeSantis,

Trump – have all gone silent now

Are they huddled together planning

a brave new world?

Have they consulted the eastern star?

Do they dream a new alliance?

Will they rise or will they fall?

 

Go home Bolsonaro!

Go home and take your friends

 

The River Liffey

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  RIVER SERIES

The River Liffey

 

The River Liffey gives life to Dublin

Where Mister Joyce once plied his wares

Where all the men are strong and brave

Where the women are more than fair

 

It rises from the nearby mountains

Tracing the lowlands of Kildare

It cuts straight through the heart of Dublin

Bringing all it has to bear

 

It empties in the Irish Sea

Where the land and sea collide

Where the sailors rough and tumble

Take the ocean as their bride

 

Without the River Liffey

The town of Dublin would not be

And all the treasured Irish poets

Would be without their poetry

 

We the People

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

We the People

 

The question is not how did congress

become so dysfunctional?

The question is how did the people

become so cynical?

 

We the people elected these buffoons

We the people placed in power individuals

determined to grind the wheels of

government to a halt

We the people elevated an angry mob to

the hallowed halls of governance

 

At a time of historical need

With climate crises bearing down like the

last train to Harlem at midnight

With the scourge of war striking at the

heart of Europe

With the soul of democracy hanging

by the thinnest thread

 

The question now becomes:

will we the people wake up in time

to pull these misfits into something

resembling functional order or will

we allow them to drag us down the

rabbit hole to total self-destruction?

 

We the people created this monster

We the people must strike it dead

 

The Grail

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

The Grail

 

Down the road at Lawrence Livermore Lab

They fused atoms to produce energy

And the government gladly paid the tab

 

Nuclear science says it’s the holy grail

An inexpensive clean energy source

The greatest thing since the US Mail

Are we interested? Of course!

 

An end to fossil fuel dependence

An end to global climate change

A chance to save our own descendants

A future completely rearranged

 

But the corporations that sell us oil

Won’t sit still for this

Free energy makes their blood boil

It is on their Kill it! list

 

The people must rise up

To demand what we deserve

It is the fabled cup

For all humanity it will serve

 

The Cleansing

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

The Cleansing (Let it Rain)

 

Day after day the rain falls

As if to make up for lost time

As if all the world was parched

In desperate need of cleansing

Let it rain

 

If only we could cleanse the world

Of hatred, greed and vengeance

If only the rain would wipe away

Sorrow, pain and hopelessness

If only the great cleansing could

Sweep all weapons of war into

The deep of the deepest sea

If only the rain could cleanse

The soul of every man and woman

Until the world itself was made anew

 

But the world does not work that way

It follows the laws of nature

Who knows? Maybe the laws will

Bend for the great cleansing

Let it rain

 

Deep State

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Deep State

 

We nearly lost our democracy

Not because we believed in conspiracies

Not because we believe in a deep state

Not because the deep state took control

of our institutions of government

but because corrupt and power hungry

individuals used the “deep state” to

persuade a large number of people to

turn against their own government

 

If there is a deep state (and I believe

there is) it is the enemy of democracy

It is allied with the forces that attacked

and attempted to overthrow our government

That defied our democratic institutions

The deep state worked overtime to

subvert our system of justice

The deep state is and represents the

wealthiest of the wealthy elite

The deep state created and promotes

the Federalist Society

The deep state virtually owns the

highest court in the land

The deep state fights against all limits

on campaign financing

The deep state supports disenfranchisement

The deep state opposes voting rights

The deep state supports gerrymandering

The deep state opposes all democratic reforms

 

The deep state is beyond political parties

The deep state wants control of the

political, judicial and legislative branches

The deep state is eager to impose a one-man rule

(the easier to control)

 

Never believe that the deep state is defeated

It can never be extinguished

In many ways the deep state is winning

Only democracy can oppose them

Only democracy can defeat them

The fight will never end

 

New Beginning

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

New Beginning

 

In the wonder we call life

There is no greater miracle

Within our sense or sight

Than the turning of the years

The come and going of the light

 

We say a long goodbye

Each December come to pass

With a cheer and then a sigh

For all things that cannot last

No matter how we wish

No matter how we cry

The years roll by too quickly

All things that live must die

 

But there will be another year

And another will roll by

As we hold our loved ones near

With a long and wishful sigh

 

New Year

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

New Year

 

On the other side of the world

The war continues unabated

Putin’s horrors are unfurled

As if it had been fated

 

We would change it if we could

We would bring it to an end

We would lock away the madman

And all his brutal friends

 

What more can we do but let

Our government know we care?

Send our aide and best wishes

Make it easier to bear

 

Make the oligarchs pay the cost

For Putin’s war of cruel attrition

Let him know his cause is lost

Cut off his ammunition

 

In our part of the world

The wars are only metaphors

The battle for democracy

A trail of horrid storms

 

We know life could be harder

We know it could be worse

Our storms are free of missiles

We still think of ourselves first

 

But we swear we’ll not forget

The many hardships you endure

This world is ever smaller

Of that we can be sure

 

As we say goodbye to twenty-two

And welcome twenty-three

We hope for better days ahead

Though what will be will be

 

(Happy New Year to all!)

The Martyr

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

The Martyr (Mohsen Shekari)

 

A child grows up wanting to be

A firefighter, a police officer, a doctor

A lawyer, a cowboy, a chief

 

No one grows up wanting to be a martyr

No one aspires to be stoned

by the morality police

No one wants to be remembered

for their sacrifice

 

But we do want to be heroes

We do want to be remembered for

standing strong on principle

We do want our names to be passed on

to future generations

We do want to be known for the

courage of our convictions

 

Let the name of Mohsen Shekari be

etched in the stone of martyrdom

alongside Mahsa Amini

 

Let their courage and conviction be

Known throughout Iran and across

the world to the end of time

 

He did not wish to be martyred

yet his martyrdom speaks of honor

and his honor lives on