Vladimir Kara-Murza

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RUSSIAN OPPRESSION

Vladimir Kara-Murza *

 

To the defenders of Russian actions

To the apologists for Putin’s aggression

To those who curse the western reaction

As they point to our past oppression

 

If you resided in the Kremlin today

You would be facing a charge of treason

There’d be nothing you could do or say

There would be no point to your reason

 

If you but dared to criticize the leader

Or spoke out against the nation

You’d be labeled a trouble breeder

A spreader of “false information”

 

You would spend your life behind bars

Never again to breathe free air

No longer to gaze at the stars

Would you finally begin to care?

 

To you who disseminate Russian lies

We know who butters your bread

Respect for the truth defies

All the falsehoods that you spread

 

And there is no just compensation

For the evil that you have served

You have lost all hope of salvation

May you get what you richly deserve

 

* Russian journalist and critic sentenced

to 25 years in prison.

 

Khartoum

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Khartoum

 

A nation in perpetual war

Where power is determined by arms

A failure of the democratic form

Government by spells and charms

 

A legacy of hatred and genocide

Crimes against all humanity

Religious and cultural divides

Warlords of infinite vanity

Justice can never preside

When hatred breeds insanity

 

World powers are brought to bear

In a land so rich with treasures

Trapped in a treacherous lair

War as a pastime of leisure

 

Will this bloodshed go on forever?

Or will it finally come to an end?

Will the roots of war be severed?

Or will Sudan into hell descend?

 

Cultural Courage

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUE HISTORY

 

Cultural Courage

 

Children have the courage of conviction

Unfiltered truth can only make them strong

Facts will serve as sound-of-mind nutrition

Sorting out the righteous from the wrong

 

History cannot survive as fiction

America’s a place where all belong

The stories of betrayal and sedition

Will not remain well hidden for too long

 

So let the truth be rendered loud and clear

Slavery and genocide were real

Confront it without compromise or fear

Let our wounds at last begin to heal

 

When finally our reckoning begins

America will light a shining flame

When we freely tell the story of our sins

The promise will be more than just a name

 

Ft. Lauderdale Flood

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

Fort Lauderdale Flood

 

Spring break in Fort Lauderdale

Shortened by a thousand-year downpour

That’s what they’re saying on the news

A thousand-year downpour

Like a sign of the apocalypse

I say how do they know?

Were they here a thousand years ago?

How’s about the weather Martha?

Bet your daddy didn’t warn you about this

They say its Goble Climb It Changed

They climbed up and couldn’t get down

Two feet of water on Main Street

A water slide through the middle of town

Can you believe it?

The Oldsmobile will never be the same

We ought to sell that damn thing

While it’s still worth the parking fee

Buy a rowboat for chrisakes

One darn thing after another

Helluva thing for chrisakes

Who’s idea was it to move down here?

Mine? Shows you what I know

The whole darn state can go to hell

And no one would even notice

 

Before the Flood

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

Before the Flood

 

Remember Notre Dame before the fire

Remember New Orleans before the flood

Remember how things used to be

Before a series of calamities

Took away our muse

Swept away our sense of glory

Stole the very heart of magic

Absconded with our soul

 

We know nothing stays the same

Even memories must change

Yet we remember with our hearts

We see through our emotions

We remember how we felt when

We first set eyes upon the Mona Lisa

We remember our exhilaration upon seeing

The Grand Canyon or Stone Henge

We remember the strange sensation that

Ran through our spines when we observed

The burial site of Geronimo

Or the ghost dancers of Wounded Knee

We remember the awe that knock on our

Doors when we entered the chamber

Where Mozart once played

 

We will never forget how it was

Before the flood

Even if it wasn’t

 

The Western Alliance

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

The Western Alliance (for Macron)

 

The strength of the western alliance

Had endured a multitude of tests

It has survived a president’s defiance

To affirm the unity of the west

 

Along comes Macron and Xi

With an awkward shake of the hand

A man too eager to please

Devalues the democracy brand

 

Does Macron speak for his nation

Or does he only speak for himself?

Does he work for the world’s salvation

Or is NATO now on the shelf?

 

We know that you are afraid

Of the Russian Chinese threat

But the price of Chinese trade

May not exceed the morality debt

 

Tyranny in Tennessee

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Tyranny in Tennessee

 

There is no tyrant in Tennessee

You cannot silence a dissident voice

There is in name democracy

You must honor the people’s choice

 

You value guns above free speech

You pick and choose your Bill of Rights

You mandate what your schools will teach

You favor those whose skin is white

 

This is not the Tennessee I know

The bulwark of equality

Were you only putting on a show?

The essence of hypocrisy

 

There’s time enough to change your act

Open your eyes and see the light

Admit you’re wrong and take it back

Reverse your course and make it right

 

(Note: Tennessee legislature expels

Members for sympathy with protesters.)

 

Stealing Children

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Stealing Children

 

What sort of depravity is this?

Stealing thousands of children

From their homes and families

For cultural re-education

In an enemy nation

 

What sort of inhuman mind can

Conceive of such depravity?

 

We can only assume they wish to

Recruit soldiers to serve in their

Invasion forces when their own

Citizens refuse and the mercenaries

Exceed their resources

 

The beast of the east wants Ukrainian

Children to fight Ukrainian soldiers

Their own parents and relatives

Their own friends and neighbors

For the pride of Mother Russia

 

It will not work

It cannot work

The world will not stand by as

The most depraved monster

Of the twenty-first century slips

Below the threshold of fundamental

Humanity

 

Loss

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Loss

 

The loss of one that never was

Has the power to take us under

Remember the love that guides us

The grace, the beauty and wonder

 

We rage at how this happens

To those who are good and true

But there are no answers coming

There is little we can do

 

The loss of something dear to us

Must serve to bond our hearts

For everyone must suffer thus

Before we can depart

 

Please know that love surrounds you

Every moment of every day

We feel the loss as you do

Though it is difficult to say

 

This too will pass in time

The mark we wear on sorrow’s face

Will slowly lose its bind

And joy will take its place

 

Endurance of the Soul

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

Endurance of the Soul

 

Grant that each individual is unique

Let us call that uniqueness the soul

Grant that the soul exists within the

living spirit of each individual being

Grant that something which exists in

time and space cannot cease to exist

It must endure though it be transformed

 

We have arrived at the most basic

promise of all the world’s religions:

That the soul lives beyond our death

What we have not and cannot resolve

is whether the soul retains its form as an

individuality within a larger body or

it absorbed into the collective soul

This is a question that is beyond science

Subject only to deeply spiritual inquiry

 

Let each man and woman decide for him

and her self and let us call this: faith:

A complex web of internalized beliefs

that mirrors the essence of the soul

 

Faith is a choice: Choose wisely

 

House of Saud

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

House of Saud

 

They rule by royal bloodline

Their people are enslaved

They smile and share the wine

And laugh over our graves

We treat them with esteem

But it’s not the way it seems

We’re titans to their gods

The royal House of Saud

 

With the price of oil rising

The dying in Ukraine

The east and west colliding

Allies only in name

I find it most surprising

The Saudis have no shame

The west will not applaud

The royal House of Saud

 

The Saudis aren’t our friends

But on their oil we depend

How long must we pretend?

How long must we defend

The sponsors of jihad

The royal House of Saud

 

The Arraignment

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

The Arraignment

 

Lord knows it took a while

The squeaky wheels of justice turn

The former leader goes to trial

The flames of payback burn

 

The man no one could ever touch

Who always skated ‘round the law

His confidence was way too much

His manners much too raw

 

But time runs out for everyone

The proudest and the best

The slumlord’s spoiled little son

Did not survive his latest test

 

He can’t believe what’s going down

How can this world be so unfair?

I’m the man who sold this town!

Sorry Donald, no one cares

 

The Year of Warming

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

The Year of Warming

 

The year of warming has arrived

The year when everything changes

The year when diehard skeptics awaken

The year tornado alley became an expressway

from California to New Jersey

The year the Midwest became a wasteland

on the trail of mass destruction

The year the south became a cemetery

The year no one could escape the ravages

of global climate change

The year deniers were denied

 

We mourn the dead and suffering

We can no longer look away

The time for warning is over

The change is here to stay

 

(From the news: A swarm of tornadoes

hits eleven states, taking over 30 lives.)

 

Ironies

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

Ironies

 

The irony is

Poverty hits hardest those who

don’t believe in helping the poor

 

The irony is

Global warming most victimizes

those who deny its very existence

 

The irony is

Homelessness comes to those

who least expect it

 

The irony is

Those who condemn sins most

loudly are most likely to be tempted

 

The irony is

Those who cry injustice are often

those who are most unjust

 

Life is filled with ironies

There runs a steady stream

On the daily news

In our daily lives

In the lives of those we know

In the lives of those we don’t

 

In a world of the extraordinary

The extraordinary becomes ordinary

 

Ironic, isn’t it?