Fairness

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Fairness

 

Life is not fair

We say it so often we believe it

We believe it so well we aggrieve it

The stars turned against me

My enemies joined forces

The D.A. and the media

The judges and the elite

The system and the deep state

They won’t let me have my way

It’s so unfair…

 

Well sometimes life is unfair

Things happen that shouldn’t

Children die in accidents

Mothers die giving birth

Wars and disasters

Hurricanes and floods

 

And yet most of the time

(maybe nine out of ten)

Life is fair

Good things happen to good people

Loving couples find each other

A child is born to caring parents

Guilty people are found guilty

Innocent people go free

The right person is elected president

Problems are solved

People work together

Teachers teach children

Music and literature

Love and understanding

 

Life is mostly fair

When it is not take heart

We will endure

And fairness will return

Like sunlight at dawn

 

Idiot Wind

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ISRAEL AT WAR

Idiot Wind *

 

We know that Netanyahu

Is a force against democracy

A voice for vengeance

A proponent of endless war

A perpetrator of genocide

But if you believe that Israeli forces

Dug the tunnels, planned and executed

The massacres of October 7^th

A brutal execution of their own people

The idiot wind is blowing

Through the vacuum of your mind

There is no end to fantasies

That prejudice can find

 

We know that Netanyahu failed

Failed to protect his people

He knew what was about to happen and

Failed to respond in time

We know that he is guilty of

Crimes against humanity

Crimes against civilization

Mass destruction and reckless

Disregard for innocent life

But if you believe the Israelis

Have no cause for rage and revenge

A rage founded in antiquity

A rage recorded for all time

The idiot wind is blowing

Through the missives of your kind

Through eyes that have been

Rendered selectively blind

 

* A song by Bob Dylan

 

Blind Vengeance

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ISRAEL AT WAR

Blind Vengeance

 

People of Israel

Do you know the crimes

committed in your name?

 

What began as self defense

surrendered that rationale

when Netanyahu decided civilians

were subject to extermination

 

People of Israel

Have you seen the destruction

delivered in your name?

 

Hospitals are not hiding enemies

Schools are not training sites

An ambulance is not a target

Children are not expendable

Palestinians are not Hamas

Mothers are not soldiers

 

People of Israel

Do you know the blood your

leaders are spilling in your name?

 

I am not a terrorist apologist

I lament the unconscionable act

that unleashed this chain of horror

but just retribution has turned

into blind and brutal vengeance

 

People of Israel

I believe in your humanity

Help us to help your nation

return to the path of peace

 

Zelensky Stands

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Zelensky Stands

 

He became the president of

A nation under siege

All of Ukraine shivers

Every time Russia breathes

 

Putin took Crimea and eastern Ukraine

Like Canada seizing New Hampshire and Maine

The American president gave him the shoulder

The White House reception could not have been colder

 

Against all odds he stood his ground

When the Russian invaders took their land

His courage was proven, his character sound

Four years later Zelensky still stands

 

Nobody knows what the future will hold

But in him we have witnessed the best of a man

His passion is true and his instincts are bold

When other would falter Zelensky stands

 

Cruel and Unusual

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: DEATH PENALTY

Cruel and Unusual

 

In times past a king executed a human

being with the wave of his hand

 

Beheading

Hanging

Stoning

A firing line

 

A king, a queen, an emperor, a commander

gave the order and the executor executed

It was common though it was cruel

 

Today we subject the accused to a trial

that can take months or years

To an appeals process that takes decades

And an execution that drags on and on

in finding a method of killing that is

something less than horrific

 

Electrocution

Chemical injection

The gas chamber

Hanging or firing line

 

It is no longer common

but it is cruel beyond belief

If we make cruelty common

it is no longer unconstitutional

but it remains unconscionable

immoral and devoid of humanity

 

We are experimenting with death

Manipulating methods of taking life

until we find one that masks its

inherent cruelty

 

Our nation and culture can never be

civilized until we ban this barbaric practice

Every individual who supports the death

penalty should be forced to watch an

execution in real time

 

The dying of the light is common

The taking of the light is cruel

The state should have no right

Let mercy be the rule

The Great Redeemer

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

The Redeemer

 

He was a man of sin

Greed, gluttony and lust

He’d do anything to win

A man you could not trust

 

He was reborn overnight

No one knows how or why

He saw a brilliant light

He could never tell a lie

 

Now he faces persecution

He is a martyr to the cause

He represents divine solution

In defiance of all laws

 

He is the great redeemer

He was chosen for this fight

Just look at his demeanor

He is sure to make it right

 

A higher source is calling

Do not get in the way

His enemies are falling

The dawn is here to stay

 

Deluge in San Diego

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

Deluge in San Diego

 

The city of sunshine under water

A deluge of winter rain

A thousand years of history

Another mark of climate change

 

San Diego is a place of warmth

They are not prepared for flood

Their streets turned into rivers

Their fields turned into mud

 

We are all believers now

Our doubts have brought us shame

Once they would deny it all

They would not even say its name

 

So let the angry waters roar

Laying waste upon their path

The deluge pounds away the shore

An angry planet has it wrath

 

Please forgive us for our ignorance

Please forgive our foolish ways

We place ourselves at your mercy

Guide us through these tragic days

 

Loyalty

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POLITICS

Loyalty

 

Loyalty is not a virtue

It is a servant without a core

Depending on its master

It is a hero or a whore

 

If I pledge my loyalty

To the leader of a cause

It becomes a reassurance

Almost worthy of applause

 

But if I give my sworn devotion

To a mob bent on destroying

My loyalty becomes a curse

Far worse than just annoying

 

Do not pledge you loyalty

To anyone you don’t know well

To do so may be a promise

To march blindly into hell

 

There Will Be Chaos

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

There Will Be Chaos

 

When a man tells you he’s bad

Take him at his word

When he says there will be chaos

Where exactly have we heard

That sort of thing before?

 

When he says there will be blood

Do not turn your head away

In the days before the flood

Would you decide to stay?

 

Take heed he is the voice

Of a violent angry mob

He is offering us a choice

His fortune for your job

 

There will be chaos and unrest

If he’s not allowed to run

There will be riots in the streets

Before his day is done

 

That’s a promise he will keep

Unlike the border wall

Beware and do not sleep

In the days before the fall

 

Conspiracy of the Elite

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CONSPIRACY

 

Conspiracy of the Elite

 

I have a friend who’s well-informed

on most matters

He believes the elite created and

disseminated a virus to control over

population

He believes they invented a vaccine

to pacify the masses

To alleviate the discontent that

infects the lower classes

 

My friend may not be wrong

but he’s certainly not right

Davos is a party where

they drink into the night

They despise Elon Musk

They don’t want him in their sight

They can’t agree on anything

No less the planet’s plight

 

All the super-secret societies

have gone public these days

They’re all twiddling their thumbs

to the latest Hollywood craze

 

They don’t care about the masses

They only care about themselves

As far as they’re concerned

The whole world can go to hell

 

A Blizzard in the Warming

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

A Blizzard in the Warming

 

The world is filled with ironies

A wicked winter storm

Belies the greater truth

The earth is growing warm

 

Like sunshine on a winter day

Or like the tree that shades us

A cold streak in the month of May

The greater truth evades us

 

The hottest year in millennia

One hundred thousand to be clear

Cave men at the dawn of time

Did not see so hot a year

 

I am not worried for the earth

I am not worried much at all

I’ve lived my life for what it’s worth

I’m nearly ready for the fall

 

But I’m worried for the young ones

Who have not fully lived their lives

The good old days are almost done

Soon the reckoning will arrive

 

Overcome (for MLK)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Overcome 

 

The sickness and the sorrow

Invades my soul this day

Of all the things I know

No one reveals the way

I don’t know where I’m going

I don’t know where I’m from

And yet I still believe

We shall overcome

 

I walked a lonely mile

With Bobby and the King

I marched into the setting sun

When he sang Let Freedom Ring!

There’s nothing left of them

But the instrument I strum

And yet I still have faith

We shall overcome

 

We overcame the monarch

We overcame the Klan

We overcame the royalists

Who fought the Rights of Man

I hear the soldiers crying out

The pounding of the drums

We will not turn and run this day

We shall overcome

 

I bathed in sacred waters

I reached a distant shore

When hunger stood before me

I knocked upon the door

She said I have no whiskey

But I’ve got a little rum

I shed a tear of joy and said

We shall overcome