Fire, Wind & Rain

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

Fire, Wind & Rain

 

Horrendous fire, wind and rain

The prophecies unfold

A land of darkness filled with pain

The feeble and the old

Run for cover and take heed

There are more omens

Than we can read

The beggar and the blind man

Foresee a time of wanton need

 

Fire followed by torrential rain

A stripping of the land

This page of history is stained

When we failed to take a stand

When all was well and

There was time

To save the lot of man

 

We will rise again to claim a place

Upon the living earth

The survivors will give warning

Of the burdens we once faced

And our failure to live up to it

For whatever it is worth

 

Secret Service Betrayal

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Secret Service Betrayal

 

The people who protect the president today

Are those who betrayed him yesterday

 

To serve and protect is just a slogan

A shallow piece of folklore

The agents sworn to the constitution

Became the president’s whores

 

You might think that’s a little harsh

You might think it’s a little strong

Take account of all the facts *

You will find you’re entirely wrong

 

They declared by their own actions

They are enemies of the state

If we leave security in their hands

We will inherit a bitter fate

 

We should retire every one of them

Let them know what they have done

But they have failed at insurrection

(for now) democracy has won

 

* Secret Service purges all January

6^th Insurrection emails

 

Redemption

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: NATIVE JUSTICE

Redemption (versus Reparations)

 

Reparations are for the flesh

Redemption is for the soul

Reparations ease our memories

They do not make us whole

 

When those who have abused us

Offer money for our pain

It fails to give us comfort

A glass of water for the rain

 

But when we are redeemed

We are obliged to forgive

The abuser feels our suffering

Another life is lived

 

So offer your reparations

If your guilt you wish to ease

But if you seek redemption

Let your conscience set you free

 

(for all indigenous people)

 

The Rights of Women

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Rights of Women

 

Women struggled for the right to vote

Women fought for the right to speak

Women won the right to choose

Who and when they marry

Women won the right to divorce

Women fought for the right to work

Outside the home without consent

Women earned the right to equal treatment

Under the law but not to equal wages

Women demand the right to love

And live with whom they choose

Women have won the right to achieve

In all fields of endeavor

But women lost the right to end

An unwanted pregnancy

Women had won that right but lost it

It was taken from them by

A court of supreme injustice

The question now becomes:

If the court can take this right today

What rights will it take tomorrow?

If the court claims jurisdiction

Over a woman’s body

Where then does it end?

What rights are beyond its reach?

 

Universality

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Universality (Every Mother’s Son)

I’ve been all around this country

And there’s a few things that I know

Folks are pretty much the same

No matter where you go

I’ve lived a life in Tennessee

California is my home

I’ve hung my hat in New York City

Though I’ve never been to Nome

Chorus:

This is the simple truth my friend

No matter what you hear

There are those who would divide us

By playing to our fear

We might wear our hair in different styles

We might favor different clothes

But we love our friends and family

When we let our feelings show

I’ve been to other countries

I’ve flown across the sea

I’ve met good people everywhere

Who seem a lot like me

We don’t need to have a civil war

We don’t need to carry guns

We just need to know and understand

We’re every mother’s son *

We’re every mother’s son my friend

And every father’s daughter

We all breathe the same air

We all drink the same water

This is the simple truth my friend

No matter what you hear

There are those who would divide us

By playing to our fears

* and daughter

The Heat

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

 

The Heat

 

The heat is a cage

That surrounds and entraps me

In my body

In my mind

In my spirit willing

Deep in my oppressive fear

There is no escape

There is no relief

The heat climbs inside my soul

Inside the hole that used to be

The suffering of my memories

The heat warps my perception

Of all that is

Of all that was

Of all that will ever be

 

Have you ever been so hot

You cannot think

You cannot stand

You cannot walk

Until the cooling comes

And all this punishing heat

All this swarming pounding heat

Begins to recede

Like the coming of fall

Like a glass of fresh spring

Like nightfall used to be

When dinosaurs walked the earth

 

Relativity

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Relativity

 

The price of a dozen eggs

The cost of a tank of gas

A pounding wave of heat and fire

A man with murder on his brain

An assault on democracy

People living in the parks

People killed in the grocery store

Another month without rain

Working people evicted

A shortage of police

The cost of a used vehicle

People enduring constant pain

If you think it could not be worse

Let me politely explain:

You could be in Ukraine

 

London is in lockdown

The Amazon is burning

Fires streak across Brazil

Across much of southern France

Across Portugal and Spain

Northern Africa is roasting

The Middle East and Bahrain

Creeks and rivers running dry

Destroying crops and wilting grain

If you think it could not be worse

It could be Yemen or Ukraine

 

The Age of Fire

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

 

The Age of Fire

 

The wind is filled with rage

This warming will not tire

We begin this horrid age

Of wind and smoke and fire

 

The politicians all knew well

They saw clearly what was coming

But instead of speaking out

They bred the global dumbing

 

We know now we can’t escape

The consequence most dire

A swelling of the oceans

We’re in the age of fire

 

So pray to all the gods

To mitigate the harm

We sacrificed our future

By raising no alarm

 

We know you will be angry

We feel your sense of ire

We did not raise a hand

To stop the age of fire

 

Global Dumbing

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

 

Global Dumbing

 

One hundred Fahrenheit in Britain

Wildfires across France and Spain

Two hundred years of industrial waste

Hide your head and pray for rain

 

We can’t say we were not warned

We knew this day was coming

Crushing drought and extreme storms

Global warming, global dumbing

 

The sea is hot, the land is dry

It’s fuel for raging flames

We can’t pretend we don’t know why

We cannot play denial games

 

The sky is brown, the land is black

We pray an end will come

But common sense is what we lack

Global warming, global dumb

 

A Delicate Balance

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

A Delicate Balance (Hard Choices)

 

It’s a question of relative evil

The world’s need for Saudi oil

The invasion of Ukraine

The crimes on Yemeni soil

 

The Saudis are brutal oppressors

The Russians are equally bad

We yearn for simpler times

The relationships we once had

 

But the world has never been simple

We have had to make hard choices

When we silence one bad player

We enhance another’s voices

 

In the place we find ourselves today

We require the Saudis on board

To ease the global tensions

To end the Ukrainian war

 

The time must someday come

When we deal with the devil no more

I confess it seems unreachable

Like a ship on a distant shore

 

Yosemite Burning

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

 

Yosemite Burning

 

We are the caretakers of the land

And we have failed our charge

Yosemite Valley is on fire

Wawona is burning

The towering Sequoias

Trees that have survived millennia

The passing of wars

The ravages of logging

The age of industrialization

Now face the threat of warming

 

There is something quite obscene

About destroying ancient beings

Far older and infinitely more majestic

Than modern civilization

It is a failure of our culture

And a failure of our nation

That our most prized possessions

Our land our parks our forests

Our natural wonders

Now face an existential threat

And we can do little

To prevent it

 

Covid Rides Again

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

 

Covid Rides Again

 

The fifth subvariant of the seventh wave

Comes crashing upon our shore

Works its way across the land

Comes a knocking at our door

 

Will we never rid ourselves

Of this deadly viral scourge?

Or will we let it grow and spread

To enact a natural purge?

 

We know we cannot live this way

Forever and a night

This is not a human enemy

That we can curse and fight

 

So it will run its natural course

Stealing more and many lives

As we pretend it is not so

The virus grows and thrives

 

The Faces of America

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

 

The Faces of America

 

Barack Obama said

There weren’t two Americas

There was only one

Barack Obama was partly right

And partly wrong

There aren’t two Americas

But there isn’t only one

There are more like twenty-two

Under the American sun

 

One America loves to read

Another watches sports on TV

One America plants a seed

Another has no need

One America reveres the flag

Another uses recyclable bags

One America loves barbecue

Another thrives on potato stew

One America loves its guns

Another wishes that was done

One America has no fear

Another cries a river of tears

One awakens to an ocean view

For another a simple park will do

One resides below the border

Another pleads for law and order

 

America has so many faces

So many cultures and so many races

Like the land we have all variations

But together we form a nation

United in our conviction

That together we are strong

We will rise above all wrong

Divided we are weak

That ship will spring a leak

 

Obama was partly right

Obama was partly wrong

He had a dream within his sight

But we are not that far along

Open Letter to the GRU

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Open Letter to the GRU

 

Putin holds the strings of power

But you are the strings

You can sever his connections

He is the bird but you are the wings

He owns the day but you own the hour

He has the drum but you are the beat

He has potatoes but you have the heat

To warm the pot of stew

He is nothing without you

The force of the GRU

 

He is the brain but you are the heart

You are the wheels that carry the cart

He is the madman behind the curtain

With him in charge nothing is certain

It is time to end his reign

For all as well as Ukraine

This man has gone insane

He threatens to destroy the world

For his psyche has come unfurled

There is nothing left to do

It all comes down to you

The force of the GRU

 

Evil Lives Here

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL JUSTICE

 

Evil Lives Here

 

I sanction modern day slavery

I am the last bastion of aristocracy

I subject women to servitude

I exploit stars of the western world

With the treasure of black blood

I nip democracy in the bud

I am the Emirates

Evil lives here

 

I kill journalists for fun

I execute people on religious grounds

I suppress civil liberties

I suppress women’s rights

I think nothing of committing

Genocide on Yemeni soil

I hold the west hostage for oil

I am Saudi Arabia

Evil lives here

 

I steal western technology

I subject a religious minority to retraining

I have outlawed a free press

I have severed ties to the outside world

I think nothing of crimes against humanity

I am the champion of cheap labor

I play the west for fools

While exploiting western tools

I am China

Beast of the east

Evil lives here

 

I kill more dissidents than you can count

I invade neighbors to feed my ego

I hold Europe hostage for energy

I interfere in foreign elections

I made a fool into a king

I give pretense to democratic rule

I am Mother Russia

Evil lives here

 

The Long Journey

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

The Journey

 

The journey begins knowing

That barriers will be encountered

Plans will be made only

To be modified, scrapped

And made again

 

Begin with a positive frame of mind

Confident in your ability to alter the course

To adjust to changing circumstance

You march forward determined to

Take no steps backwards

 

You know the journey is a marathon

You will not rush to its end

You take each step deliberately

And with a purpose

You welcome adversity

You accept every challenge

As it presents itself

You rejoice at every victory

Every moment of achievement

Every turn of good fortune

 

You do not dwell in the past

You accept your mistakes and move on

You know that every journey

Will challenge your determination

Your endurance and fortitude

 

When you reach your journey’s end

You pause and give thanks

For every journey is a blessing

Even those that end in hardship

Even those that steal your strength

And leave you wanting

For every journey guides you

To your destiny

 

Young Punks

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  POEMICS (Mass Shootings)

 

Young Punks

 

Another mass shooting

This time north of Chicago

An Independence Day parade

Another young punk

With a weapon of mass destruction

And a clip of ammunition

Another killing of random individuals

Another ineffectual protest

Another indefensible act of violence

Another young man tangled in frustration

Tortured by his own psyche

 

We speculate and wonder

Who will be next?

We speculate and wonder

Why so many young men

Want to kill at random

We speculate and wonder

Why our culture produces

So much frustration and despair

 

It is not enough to take away the guns

(though it would surely help)

We must solve the equation of

Helplessness in a world of plenty

We must offer a sense of purpose

Not just to the chosen few

But to the forgotten many

We must offer new ways of living

In peace and mutual respect

 

There is too much anger

There is too much rage

To be so lost and hopeless

At such a young age

 

We must do better

We must do more

We must offer alternatives

We must open the door

 

Another Fourth of July

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Another Fourth of July

 

The birth of a nation is a remarkable event

A convergence of historical circumstance

Gives rise to a new nation state

 

An act of injustice in a sea of oppression

(Taxation without representation)

An extraordinary circle of free thinkers

(Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Paine)

A declaration of independence

(We hold these truths to be self-evident)

The rise of a citizen’s army

(A well-regulated militia)

A long grueling campaign

(Starvation at Valley Forge)

The luck of the Irish

(The French alliance)

A nation conceived in liberty

(Made fertile by native blood)

The birth of modern democracy

(A republic if we can keep it)

This day we remember

(Four score and seven years ago)

And we renew the promise

 

Dark Days Democracy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Dark Days Democracy

 

America has known many dark days

And many long dark nights

We have grown to understand

That if we stand still too long

We will sacrifice our rights

We will lose democracy itself

If we have lost the will to fight

 

For too long we have assumed

That self-government secures itself

A people will not pluck out its own heart

We would not send ourselves to hell

Or throw ourselves under the cart

The root of our being is to deny all kings

We would never allow democracy to part

Independence and liberty of thee I sing

Free and fair elections is where we start

 

But now we have learned nothing is sure

The rights and liberties at our very core

If it’s not nailed down it is not secure

From our purple mountains to majestic shores

If we will not fight or can’t endure

The land of the free may be no more