The Gateway

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

 

The Gateway

 

They stormed the gates of the Bastille

They stormed the gates of Brandenburg

They stormed the gates at Buchenwald

They stormed the gates of hell

 

Whenever change is needed

Wherever people are bound

Whatever hand oppresses

A gateway must be found

 

We are known for building barriers

We are famed for building walls

But a wall without a gateway

Is a wall that must soon fall

 

A way to bend both time and space

A gateway to beyond

A path to save the human race

And build a stronger bond

 

We are trapped within an endless maze

Desperate to escape

We are searching for a gateway

To take a leap of faith

 

Round Numbers

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

 

Round Numbers

Humans are drawn to round numbers

Bicentennials and millennials

Decades and centuries

The three minute mile

Fifty ways to leave your lover

A hundred years of solitude

500 miles away from home

The first one hundred days

Top ten on the hit parade

One hundred meter dash

Ten thousand meter run

 

Two hundred thousand dead

From the novel coronavirus

Two hundred thousand humans

No longer in physical existence

Two hundred thousand mothers

Fathers sons and daughters

Uncles aunts and grandparents

Two hundred thousand doctors

Nurses farmworkers plant workers

Grocery store clerks and teachers

Two hundred thousand lovers

Loved and beloved ones

 

Are we paying attention now

Have we lost enough to care

Have we cried enough tears

Is it now too much to bear

 

Stop the destructive madness

Now that we see where it led

Toss them all overboard

Into the sea of the living dead

 

The Sacred Crow

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: VISIONS

The Sacred Crow

 

I gazed into the eyes of the crow

And saw what came to be

Days of darkness nights of fear

Catastrophe in threes

 

We tasted fruit from the poison tree

Where many fell and did not rise

The crow will always find its way

Piercing a sea of lies

 

I saw a scarred and barren land

From the eyes of the crow in flight

Trees ripped from their mother’s womb

A horrid tortured sight

 

I saw the land turn dry and crack

Cities swallowed by the sea

Smoke filled skies and burnt horizons

No place of rest to comfort me

 

The crow escapes to untouched heights

And leaves me far behind

To seek what solace welcomes me

What fate for me unwinds

 

If we measure pure intelligence

By the talent to survive

The human will long vanish

The sacred crow will thrive

 

Be more like the crow

That lives within its means

That leaves the land intact

And honors what it dreams