Indentured Servitude

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Indentured Servitude (India)

 

It’s a fine line between slavery

And indentured servitude

For the sugar workers of India

Servitude may be worse

Child labor is commonplace

Arranged marriage and hysterectomy

Keeps the workers in the fields

Where they labor endless hours

Without drink or a moment’s rest

To pay back loans they can never repay

 

The plantation owners get away with it

The same way American corporations do

They use contractors to hire workers

To transport them across the land

To build their debt of servitude

If they are forced to make account

They dissolve and take a new name

The system evolved over decades

To keep the cost of labor down

 

Every doctor or dentist visit

Every wedding or sick day

Goes on the worker’s bill

The long trip from home

The cost of a decent meal

It all goes on the bill

 

It is no better than slavery

It is in substance no different

 

This is how modern corporations

Keep the institution of slavery alive

This is how Coke and Pepsi

Deliver beverages to your market

And maximize profits to shareholders

 

Moscow Carnage

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RUSSIA

Moscow Carnage

 

An attack on art

Is an attack on humanity

The attack outside of Moscow

On a gathering of concert goers

(like the concert goers in Israel)

Is beyond the pale inhuman

The perpetrators of the massacre

Though they wear religious guise

Are the scum of the earth

Self-righteous killers

Beneath contempt

 

But those who blame Ukraine

Knowing well the lie they tell

Deserve a one-way ticket

Straight to hell

 

How many concert halls and schools

Were targeted in Ukraine

How many hospitals and libraries

How many gyms and shopping malls

 

Those who attacked the Crocus Concert

Hall are evil terrorists

Just as Russia under Vladimir Putin

Is an evil terrorist nation

 

Vaccination

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: SCIENCE

Vaccination

 

The disease that was once eradicated

Is back like a thundering storm

All because the kids weren’t vaccinated

Their parents went against the norm

 

Measles and mumps were a scourge

That took far too many lives

The numbers have begun to surge

As the spirit of denial thrives

 

There is a price for ignoring science

And that price can be most dear

There’s a price for unknowing defiance

And the due date is drawing near

 

Believe what you want to believe

But spare the next generation

Don’t allow them to be deceived

Be sure they get their vaccinations

 

The Great Disturbance

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICA

The Great Disturbance

 

There is a great disturbance across the land

One side believes one man is our salvation

The other believes with all their hearts

That man will destroy the nation

 

Is there any chance we can come together

When our convictions are so apart?

It’s as if we were raised in different lands

One of the mind and one of the heart

 

We feel the heat and call it cold

Some say summer, others spring

We are divided young and old

We don’t agree on anything

 

Yet we were raised on common ground

We must find that ground again

The nation that our fathers found

Is blowing in the wind

 

Let’s find a way to understand

To bridge the great divide

Let freedom ring across the land

No matter what your side

 

Sympathy for the Devil

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP

 

Sympathy for the Devil

 

A man in the oval office

Who fell under Vladimir’s spell

Expresses admiration for Adolf

Paving a dismal road to hell

 

He will surely throw Ukraine under

Taiwan has cause to worry

Russia will charge like rolling thunder

NATO should arm in a hurry

 

One step away from seizing power

A power he will not surrender

Unless we rise in the final hours

The people as the last defender

 

He has sympathy for the devil

And this devil has a name

The dictators of the world unite

The ones who have no shame

 

Hong Kong Lament

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: DEMOCRACY

 

Hong Kong Lament

 

If you’d like to see what the future holds

Take a good long look at Hong Kong

When democracy is bought and sold

The future won’t be long

 

In the name of law and order

Dissent defined as treason

If you live under the oppressor’s thumb

You don’t give them a reason

 

To speak your mind in any setting

Is to take a giant chance

There are many who are suffering

For taking a dissident stance

 

If you think it could not happen here

Consider the choice we face

An elder and an autocrat

The choice is a disgrace

 

Choose one and it’s a gamble

Choose the other and it’s assured

The sound of freedom running

Will be the last thing that we heard

 

In Praise of Autonomy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

In Praise of Autonomy

 

When our former president

Who shall not be named

Gives praise to a foreign autocrat

He should be ashamed

 

Viktor Orban of Hungary

Is a cruel and ruthless leader

Whose crackdown on democracy

Should terrify every reader

 

A man who praises dictators

Is telling us too much

Unless you want dictatorship

This man is out of touch

 

He proclaims himself above the law

All glory to his self

If you dare to oppose him

He’ll send you straight to hell

 

We’ll lose our treasured freedom

To speak out in dissent

One day we’ll simply wake up

And wonder where it went

 

The John Lewis Bridge

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: EQUAL RIGHTS

The John Lewis Bridge

 

Edmund Pettus was a leader of the KKK

They named a bridge after him

And on that bridge years later

They beat the hell out of black marchers

Marching for equal rights

Marching for the right to vote

Marching to be recognized

 

In an enlightened age there would be

no Edmund Pettus Bridge

It would be torn down stone by stone

Iron beam by iron beam

Scattered across the nation

Placed in museums and town halls

to remind us of our former ignorance

 

Instead let us remove the name of

Edmund Pettus and replace it with

one of the brave souls beaten on that

fateful day: The John Lewis Bridge

 

Let it be remembered by all who cross

the price that was paid that day

 

Let it serve as a reminder of the triumph

of the human spirit

The power of light over the darkness

Of good over evil

 

The Invisible Hand

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

The Invisible Hand

 

We have lost Ukraine

Or we are surely losing

Because our Republicans in congress

No longer feel the pain

They suffer from an invisible hand

Implanted deep within their brains

The hand of their invisible leader

Who himself suffers an invisible hand

Implanted within his brain

 

We are losing every battle

And soon we will lose the war

As the Republicans in congress plead:

  We have given enough already

  We cannot give you more

But the truth is another story

About a cancer in the halls of glory

The hands that pull the purse strings

Have closed the funding door

 

Insurrection Blues Redux

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: INSURRECTION

Insurrection Blues Redux

 

Want to start an insurrection?

Want to turn over an election?

If you’re Donald Trump you’re fine

If you’re not you’re doing time

 

Asking congress to do their job

Of interpreting the constitution

Is an abdication of their duty:

Delivering just restitution

To a man guilty of treason

The court offers no solution

It goes beyond all reason

It’s a wicked convolution

In a convoluted season

 

You had the duty to decide

The pressing question of the day

Is Donald Trump qualified

Or is that a price he has to pay

For inciting insurrection

Back on Insurrection Day?

 

There are three levels of the law

One is for the rich

For whom the court is made of straw

Another is for the poor

For whom brutality is raw

A third is for the Donald

Whose defiance is in awe

 

The man is guiltier than guilt

The truth is plain to see

The Court is in his pocket

It’s a sad reality

 

(re: Supreme Court V. Colorado.)

Supreme Injustice Redux

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Supreme Injustice Redux

 

When you must explain to the Court

Why their rulings are painfully wrong

It’s plain to see by reason’s eye

These judges do not belong

 

Of course the states should not decide

Who can run for president

That’s why it went to the high court

Though you’re so afraid of precedent

 

So it’s another lame decision

By the worst court of our times

Whose decisions are so partisan

It is hard to make them rhyme

 

It seems we all must suffer through

The next few generations

For those who were wrongly chosen

To the highest court of the nation

 

(The Court rules in favor of

Trump’s eligibility in Colorado.)

Extreme

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

Extreme

 

Snowstorms from west to east

Fire across the Texas plains

The gods of weather have a feast

All remedies in vain

 

The weather patterns are extreme

In every state and season

From brutal storms to wildfire

We all know well the reason

 

The planet is not angry

The gods are not upset

But the polar caps are melting

And the wetlands are too wet

 

We’ve tired of explaining

To people who do not care

The era of humans is waning

Can’t say it isn’t fair

 

Of course it could be different

If we change our course real soon

But no one seems inclined

To do what we must do

 

Voting Rights

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Voting Rights

 

When the Court gutted Voting Rights

Back in twenty and thirteen

It was no longer necessary

Said the Chief of the Supremes

Eleven years later we look at the divide

It is plenty clear to see

The Chief Justice lied

 

When you make it hard to vote

For voters with dark skin

You make it even harder

For their candidates to win

 

Alabama, Georgia, Texas

Mississippi, Tennessee

They’ve all embraced the principle

Of racial gerrymandering

 

If that was not enough

To push down turnout in the cities

They made them wait for hours

While they shrugged: Ain’t it a pity?

 

So they got what they wanted

They tipped the balance to their side

It should not come as a surprise

The Court of all courts lied

 

The Silent Protest

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

The Silent Protest

 

In Tehran they pleaded to the people

To cast their votes in the election

But the people shook their heads

Not to vote was their selection

 

When you treat the people poorly

When you trample on their rights

When you silence opposition

They will find a way to fight

 

You took away their right to march

For freedom on the streets

You tortured and abused them

Denied them the right to meet

 

They will make their feelings known

In the only ways they can

Their silence at the voting booth

Is how they choose to make a stand

 

You lost the pretense of support

You’ve lost the younger generation

Step aside and let them lead

A new and better nation