American King

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

American King

 

He can do anything he wants to do

He can lock her up

He can make lies true

He’s the master and we’re the slaves

He could have his name engraved

On the Statue of Liberty

On the Emancipation Proclamation

On the constitution of the nation

 

America! Of thee I sing!

All hail the American King!

 

I never thought I’d see the day

When we’d sacrifice our rights

When we’d throw it all away

And sail into an endless night

We’ve place him on a throne

So now we stand alone

We pray for his benevolence

For we’ve lost our independence

 

America! Of thee I sing!

All hail the American King!

 

Losing France

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Losing France

 

Losing France to Marine Le Pen

Is like losing a dearest friend

France is the heart of Europe

This wound may never mend

 

The fascist crowd will celebrate

The Vlad will raise a glass

A victory for war and hate

The flags are at half mast

 

Liberty is on the wane

Paris is in mourning

Fear and loathing rise again

To all this is a warning

 

They say there is another chance

There will be another round

A rising of the soul of France

A chance to hear that sound

 

Of people singing everywhere

That song of patriot’s pride

A song of freedom if you dare

Let us hear it far and wide

 

Time to Let Go (Dear Joe)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Time to Let Go

 

You’ve been a good president

Some would even say great

But the man we saw last night

At the presidential debate

Was lacking in substance

And slow at the plate

It pains me to say it

But in your heart you know

Dear Joe, it’s time to let go

 

The man at your side

Told lie after lie

But you stumbled and fell

And you gave him a bye

You failed on abortion

You failed on Ukraine

That you’re not fit for office

Has become more than plain

It gives me no pleasure

But the whole nation knows

Dear Joe, it’s time to let go

 

For the good of the nation

For the sake of mankind

We cannot go forward

With a man who is blind

To the stone-cold reality

Of the truth that we find

The whole planet saw it

And the whole world knows

Dear Joe, it’s time to let go

The Strange Case (Julian Assange)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: HISTORY

The Strange Case

 

The strange case of Julian Assange

Will be an anecdote in history

He exposed the dirty lies of war

But his motives were a mystery

When he aided by omission

The campaign of a pretender

He went after one candidate

But he spared the worst offender

Who ever landed on the stage

With the help of Brother Vlad

In defiance of his age

We went from good to bad

 

Those who were offended

By the consequence of his actions

Will not accept or forgive him

Or his strained loyal faction

We hold him much to blame

For the threat to our nation

He should hide his head in shame

He should forego the celebration

For his reasoning was lame

When he served the Russian station

Did he really go insane

Or did he just enjoy sensation?

 

Democracy Fatigue

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: DEMOCRACY

Democracy Fatigue

 

We’ve grown tired of democracy

We want someone to tell us

What to think and

What to do

We want someone to tell us

What is false

And what is true

 

Democracy is troublesome

You have to stay informed

You have to reason

You have to vote

You have to take a stand

You have to try and talk it out

When you don’t understand

 

Why not let it go?

Why not put it all to rest?

They are smarter

They are better

Why not let them do it all?

We’d hardly notice anyway

Why not let democracy fall?

 

And so we let it go

We just let it slip away

No more worry

No more bother

Like a friend we used to know

We never really cared

It was all just for show

 

But then they take your freedom

All the rights you took for granted

You shake your head

You walk away

What else can you do?

You have no right to speak

They decide it’s not for you

 

You don’t know until you lose it

The land of liberty

You object

You didn’t know

How important it could be

But now it’s far too late

That ship went out to sea

The Love Letters

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

The Love Letters

 

Remember those charming love letters

That our (former) president loved so much

Written with boundless affection

With a gentle and giving touch

 

All of you who have spoken ill

Of the man in the Oval Office

Who have blasted your obscenities

From the beds of moving trucks

If we lived under Kim Jong-un

You would find yourself imprisoned

Incapacitated or worse

Condemned to reeducation

Under the cloud of the leader’s curse

 

Remember the brotherly romance

Of our then president and the Vlad

The animosity that we showed him

Made our leader extremely sad

 

All of you who have expressed doubts

About the sanctity of our elections

If we lived under Putin’s rule

Your votes would be cast out

You children would be sent to fight

For the conquest of Ukraine

Your freedom would be compromised

Beyond all recognition

You would find yourself against a wall

In a compromised position

 

Be grateful for what we have

Be careful not to lose it

If democracy is not your bag

We can end it if you choose it

 

America Found

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

America Found (the Awakening)

 

We have lost our way before

We are not a perfect nation

We regarded the protectors of the land

As something less than human

As beasts to be exterminated

Or tamed and put in cages

It took centuries to awaken

To know the error of our ways

But we have awakened

To set forth a better day

 

We enslaved generations of blacks

We denied their basic humanity

We put them in chains

When they demanded their freedom

We hunted them down like rabid dogs

We whipped and hobbled them

We killed and raped them

It took centuries to awaken

To accept the truth that we betrayed

But we have awakened

To a more enlightened way

 

We have fought unprovoked wars

Unjust wars of mass destruction

We have followed poor leaders

We have embraced corporate greed

We have turned the clock backwards

We have stripped away rights

We have sanctioned child labor

We have done evil things

In our God’s holy name

But we have always awakened

In the spirit of righteous shame

 

America Lost

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

America Lost

 

America has lost her way

Long before Election Day

The stage is set

The courts are let

The sycophants are in their place

 

The vote no longer matters

Amidst the scattered chatter

The fix is in

The losers win

A head upon the platter

 

What is false and what is true?

Sinclair disseminates fake news

Russia plays

And China too

The people haven’t got a clue

 

The nation cries in deep distress

Democracy is at its best

When people know

What’s going on

We’re failing every single test

 

Time will tell if we survive

To keep the sacred dream alive

We cannot fail

The world depends

On us to find our patriot’s pride

 

Heat Rises

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

Heat Rises

 

Heat rises

Let it rise

Let there be no alibis

Follow the stars as the crow flies

Heat rises

Let it rise

 

We have endured a thousand trials

We will endure a thousand more

And we have walked a thousand miles

Just to open up this door

 

Heat rises

Let it rise

Let us see through hollow lies

Take it in and breathe a sigh

Heat rises

Let it rise

 

We will take it all in stride

Every hardship in our way

And we will find the other side

We will play it as it lays

 

Heat rises

Let it rise

Let there be no alibis

Fools fall, embrace the wise

Heat rises

Let it rise

 

The Healing

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

The Healing

 

There’s a shadow moving across the land

A great cloud of dust and sorrow

Everywhere it goes the people fall

And pray for rain tomorrow

To wash away this evil spell

This sickness of the soul

Some say it is the will of god

An undoing of the whole

 

But what god is so spiteful?

A god of ruin and disease

We need a god of healing

A god of mercy if you please

 

We know it is the work of man

And not the work of heaven

This scourge across a barren land

The horrors come in seven

Pestilence and drought

Fire, wind and thunder

Wars that never ever end

Waves that take us under

 

Pray for the great healing

No matter who or where you are

Pray to the god you know

Pray to the healing star

 

Fighting Phantoms

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Fighting Phantoms

 

Wingnuts of the reactionary right

Are fighting phantoms of imagination

Summoning ghosts of the distant past

To save an imaginary nation

 

Their enemies are all communists

Scum of the earthly kind

Like Don Quixote’s windmills

Their myths will soon unwind

 

They’re certain the people are stupid

They’ll believe anything they’re told

But their threats of retribution

Are getting more than a little old

 

You can say the sky is falling

But if you say it more than twice

The people will smell a rat

And their “leaders” will pay a price

 

So tell us again how our freedom

Depends on a new president

Who is sworn to Vladimir Putin

Our confidence is spent