Enemies of Democracy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Enemies of Democracy

 

Putin is a master propagandist

A pretender to democracy

His elections are a farce

He assaults the free press

He destroys political opposition

He attacks his democratic neighbors

For daring to choose their own leaders

 

Xi is a master of propaganda

Another pretender to democracy

Isn’t it strange how ruthless dictators

Find it necessary to pretend?

There is no genuine journalism

No institutions of free speech

No challenge to government dictates

No resistance to oppression

 

Erdogan is a wolf in sheep’s clothing

He exploits the religious right

He jails journalists and opposition

He punishes freedom of thought

He rules with the fist of fear

He maintains military control

 

Bolsonaro is a wannabe

He tried to negate a lawful election

He tried to silence the opposition

He tried to punish dissent

He failed

 

Netanyahu is a wannabe

He despises independent speech

He tried to gut the judiciary

He would destroy the free press

If he had half a chance

He would establish military rule

 

Trump is a threat to democracy

He admires only strongmen

He disrespects the rule of law

He wishes to use the justice department

To punish and silence his enemies

Given a chance he would end

Democracy in America and

Appoint an American King

The Fate of Europe

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

The Fate of Europe

 

London Berlin Paris Madrid

The warming takes its measure

Antwerp Prague and Amsterdam

Run short on summer leisure

 

The changing face of Europe

It’s sure to take its toll

From Portugal to Italy

They fear it steals your soul

 

Migration rolls from east to west

Each nation plays its part

Welcoming the labor force

With open arms and hearts

 

Beware the great white backlash

The ugly face of hate

Will Europe take the dark road

Or embrace a higher fate?

 

Little Big Man Wins the Open!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Little Big Man (Brian Harman)

 

Little Big Man steps to the fore

Knocks it straight down the middle

A heart as big as the grandest lore

It doesn’t matter if you’re big or little

 

It’s all in how you play the game

Strike it hard and strike it true

Play as if you have no shame

Let the old become the new

 

Can he make it through the day

Through all the trials and tribulations

He has the grit to make it pay

Another round in fine tradition

 

In the end only one will stand

Have a drink and shed a tear

As fate would crown the little man

Champion golfer of the year!

 

Somethings Gotta Give

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

Somethings Gotta Give

 

Reservoirs filled to the tipping point

Snowpack primed to melt away

Too many men on a lifeboat

Too many who want to stay

We’re waiting for the next disaster

We’re trying our best to live

We all know what comes after

Something has got to give

 

And nobody knows when it will be

When the walls come crashing down

Like a ship of fools lost at sea

We vanish without a sound

 

The actress made her final film

She pushed her friends away

They saw just what was happening

And no one wanted to play

They were waiting for her final take

They prayed she would want to live

She ended it for goodness sake

She had nothing left to give

 

And nobody knows when it will be

When it all comes tumbling down

Like a ship of fools lost at sea

We’ll vanish without a sound

 

Angry Men

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GUN CONTROL

Angry Men

 

We breed angry men in this country

Like they breed cheese in France

Like they breed horses in Kentucky

Like golfers on the Texas plains

Like ballplayers in Puerto Rico

 

We cultivate them from the cradle

We nourish them on entitlement

We embitter them with injustice

We embolden them with glory

We trigger them with rage

 

When they ready to explode

We offer no compassion

We offer no understanding

We offer no means of cooling down

We offer no pause for reflection

 

We give them guns and ammunition

We give them weapons of mass destruction

We give them military killing machines

We give them media of hate and rage

We point them the way to glory

And feign outrage when they kill

Crazy Horse

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN HISTORY

Crazy Horse (Heroes)

 

Never a chief

But a leader of men

A warrior not by nature

But the fiercest of all warriors

He went to the sacred mountains

To cry for a vision

The spirits blessed him with sight

He would never be killed

By a white man’s bullets

But a friend would betray him

He could take no honors

He would not be proud

He would take no more than he needed

He would live and bleed for his people

He betrayed his vision only twice

Laying with another man’s wife

Taking the honor of a shirt bearer

Both times nearly cost him his life

He proved his courage at the Greasy Grass

What the whites call Little Big Horn

He fought with the strength of seven warriors

His vision proved true at last

He knew this world was but a dream

He believed the dream world real

He went to the other side without regret

His image the whites would not steal

His spirit live on in the sacred Black Hills

Where his truth is forever revealed:

 

“My land is where my people lay buried.”

 

Crazy Horse

The Swedish Equation

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

The Swedish Equation

 

Neutrality endured for two hundred years

It somehow seemed appropriate

The world needed a neutral setting

For negotiations and diplomacy

Sweden saw no need for militarization

For as long as the doctrine held

 

Putin pushed the boundary

Crossed the line with aggressive war

Posed a threat in blood and terror

So neutrality is no more

 

After Finland, so goes Sweden

Putin altered all equations

The Russian empire is on hold

NATO adds two more nations

Backward March

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Backward March

 

The backward march to darker times

When white men held all power

Like digging a hole to make a climb

Or knocking down the tallest towers

 

The way of darkness claims the light

But the message is not divine

The evil doers proclaim the right

But their water does not change to wine

 

They lead us boldly to a certain past

When the order of things was clear

But the old days were not meant to last

Though some may hold them dear

 

We will endure these brutal days

When human rights were in retreat

Somehow someday we’ll find a way

To march to a forward beat

Floods

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

Floods

 

Disastrous floods from Vermont to Spain

I remember a time when we prayed for rain

Now we pray that the rain will cease

A planet in the throes of a strange disease

 

California suffered catastrophic drought

A summer of wildfires erased all doubt

Now the temperature rises after heavy rain

How this world ends is becoming plain

 

Shame on all those who denied the change

By now we all know you were deranged

You loved your profits far too much

On global warming you were out of touch

 

So where can we go to escape the wrath?

Too late to alter our unfortunate path

Too late for humanity to grow and thrive

Though the earth will endure and survive

 

Terrorist Nations

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Terrorist Nations

 

They cannot defeat the Ukrainian military

So they terrorize the civilian population

With indiscriminate bombing

Missiles rip into apartment buildings

Cluster bombs in residential areas

Kidnapping Ukrainian kids for reprogramming

Morbid experiments in reconditioning

They don’t care who dies or suffers

Their mission is to terrorize

When you’re in a war of attrition

Your goal is utter submission

 

There is no standard for their abuse

No laws that limit their actions

No terrorist weapons they will not use

No fear of the world’s reactions

 

We must find a way to end this reign

That threatens all of civilization

To halt a leader who’s gone insane

The clear solution is isolation

For freedom and justice in Ukraine

For all rogue and terrorist nations

 

Kill the Tweet

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

Kill the Tweet

 

No one should ever have that much money

That, my friend, is a stone-cold fact

But when you’ve alienated everyone

There’s no one that will have your back

 

You’ve run afoul so many times

You’ve lost the music and the beat

So now before we run out of rhymes

The time has come to kill the tweet

 

You’ve fueled the fires of evil men

You and mindfulness will never meet

There’s nothing left for you to defend

The time has come to kill the tweet

 

Your wealth has treated you very badly

I’d hate to see you on the street

Though sycophants claim to love you madly

The time has come to kill the tweet

 

If Nicola Tesla were still alive

He’d sue you to take back his name

While your money making still may thrive

If you had a conscience you’d live in shame

 

The Russian Candidate(s)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

The Russian Candidate

 

The war in Ukraine comes to America

In the next campaign

Trump and his loyal allies

Are the Putin candidates

The Russian candidates

The turncoat candidates

They will surrender Ukraine and

Call it peace

They will give Putin a free pass

To invade his neighbors

To reclaim the Soviet empire

To expand its oppressive reach

To rebuild the Iron Curtain

Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic

Slovakia, Romania, Hungary beware

 

They will call it justice

They will call it retribution

They will call it restoring balance

It will be none of these

The eventual truth will unfold

Like a scroll from the heavens

Donald Trump is a Russian asset

Putin holds his markers

Those who walk with him

Walk hand in hand to hell

Institutionalized Hate

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Institutionalized Hate

 

Bebe’s childhood must have been tough

To become so angry and so bent

Failing to see that enough is enough

To believe vengeance is heaven sent

 

When your answer to violence is violent

When you institutionalize hate

When the voice of reason goes silent silent

Perpetual war is your fate

 

When their children die mothers shed tears

The reasons no longer matter

Israel or Gaza their loved ones are dear

Their hopes and dreams are shattered

 

When your answer to violence is violence

When you institutionalize hate

When the voices of peace fall silent silent

Forever at war is your fate

 

American Killers

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GUN CONTROL

American Killers

 

Who buys an AR-15 and

Fifty rounds of ammunition?

American Killers

 

Who drives 300 miles

To kill brown people in Texas?

American Killers

 

Who sprays a nightclub with bullets

Because they can’t get a date?

American Killers

 

Who amasses an arsenal of weapons

To attack a synagogue or church?

American Killers

 

Who wakes up in the morning

And says: Today is a good day to kill?

American Killers

 

Who protects the right of the mentally

Deranged to possess weapons

Of mass destruction?

American Killers

 

Only in America does this happen

Because the same court that decided

There is no right to vote

That corporations have the rights of citizens

That elections can be sold to

The highest bidder

Decided that individuals have the right

To bear arms without regard

To well-regulated militias

 

Who enables mass murder?

Politicians and the Supreme Court

American Killers