Belfast

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: HISTORY

Belfast

 

Belfast in the time of the troubles

A city torn by religious divide

Catholics uprooted from their homes

For the crime of being on the other side

‘twas a time of great upheaval

‘twas a time of shameful pride

Not a place to raise a child

Explosions of needless violence

Entire neighborhoods run wild

Yet people danced and sang and played

As if they knew their chosen fate

They went on their merry way

Until the gods let down the weight

And scattered them both near and far

Excepting those who chose to stay

To suffer all the days of sorrow

Till the troubles went away

 

And here’s to old Fitzgerald

And here’s to young O’Shea

Let us bow our heads and pray

They did not die in vain

 

Ode to Rushdie

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

 

Ode to Rushdie

 

His weapons are words

His words are weapons so powerful

They strike fear and loathing

In the hearts of religious zealots

 

Words concepts ideas ideology

Rushdie engages free speech

He is a warrior of words

He is a soldier of intellect

 

He knows the dangers of his words

He has lived with that danger

For many long years

A holy man called for his death

For the crime of offensive words

 

He answered in the only way he could

With words written and spoken

He did not back down

He refused to be silenced

He pushed forward as he always had

As he always will

As long as he is able

 

Now a madman in religious guise

Attacks him viciously

Drawing his blood

Seeking to end his life

 

We can promise the assassin he failed

For Rushdie’s words only acquire

Greater strength and endurance

With this barbaric assault

 

You cannot defeat words with violence

You cannot kill ideas with bloodshed

You may think that you have won

But you have lost

And you will lose again

As long as you pit rage against reason

You will always lose

 

Untouchables

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Untouchables

 

They exist in the shadows of society

Beyond our reach and touch

Are they human?

Are they real?

Do they carry some disease?

We turn our eyes to the distance

We do not breathe the same air

We are afraid to walk with them

Afraid to share their thoughts

Afraid to take them in

Are they not human?

Are they not real?

Is it the color of their skin?

Is it the way they live?

Is it their poverty?

Is it the way it’s always been?

No one should live in the shadows

No one should be beyond reach

No one should be untouchable

For we are all human

We all breathe the same air

We all bleed the same blood

We all have children for whom we care

 

Insoluble

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

Insoluble

 

There are questions we can never answer

Not in a thousand years of contemplation

There are questions that are unanswerable

Like the emergence of human consciousness

Like the eventual decline of civilizations

Like the disappearance of life on earth

Like the random nature of good fortune

Or the seeming cruelty of fate

 

There are things we will never understand

Despite the determined efforts of science

Despite the dedication of brilliant minds

Despite the prayers of the fervent faithful

Despite the dreams of countless dreamers

Despite spectacular leaps in technology

Over the course of infinite time

 

This is why I cannot begin to comprehend

Why some are so sure of their righteousness

That they would accuse a woman of murder

For choosing to end the product of rape

And incest by cleansing it from her body

 

Red, White and Blue

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Red, White and Blue

 

Red, white and blue

These colors belong to you

If you believe in democracy

If you believe in an honest vote

If you believe in the sanctity of elections

If you believe what Jefferson wrote

 

Red, white and blue

These colors do not belong to you

If you believe in Putin’s allies

If you admire Orban of Hungary

If you sympathize with autocracy

If you reject global democracy

If you believe the election was stolen

For the sake of an American conman

Who organized an insurrection

To defraud the presidential election

 

Red, white and blue

These colors are sacred

They belong to all of us

Who pledge their life and loyalty

To the American ideal

 

Greed of Nations

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Greed of Nations

 

At a time of existential need

What could possess a nation

If not raw and despicable greed

To want more than it could use

The flower for the seed

 

The time has come to end all war

If the world would stand as one

To blockade the economic door

Until the aggression is done

And reparations are paid in full

Let there be no doubt who won

The push is finally made to pull

The aggressor shall be stunned

 

The greed of nations may not end

But it must find another way

When all the world this message sends

Aggressive war will never pay

 

Taiwan

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

Taiwan

 

Some may say it’s a provocation

Indeed I would agree

But Taiwan is a sovereign nation

With a desire to be free

 

Free of Chinese domination

The oppressive presence of Beijing

Free from fear of subjugation

Free to dance and rant and sing

 

The Chinese fist comes pounding down

Afraid of what they see

A fully independent nation

Enjoying its prosperity

 

We know that China won’t allow

Taiwan to break away

But China should be cautious

For there will be a price to pay

 

When nations become monsters

Using force to have their way

What profits them short term

In the long will lead astray

 

The Battle Within

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

The Battle Within

 

Like a tightened noose

A battle rages within

One side must lose

The other must win

 

One side attacks

The other retreats

Bruised and battered

Resolved to defeat

 

How long must I suffer

The curse of this spell?

Three days of discomfort

Or a lifetime in hell?

 

The body yearns peace

Among all its parts

The lungs and the liver

The brain and the heart

 

When the battle still rages

Something must give

The invader must leave

For the host to live

 

Covid Attack

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Covid Attack

 

The Covid is mine

It’s under my skin

I moan and I pray

Covid doesn’t win

 

My mind is blurry

My brain is on fire

I wallow in misery

I’m growing so tired

 

I’ve had all my shots

I am grateful for that

I have multiple lives

Like an old alley cat

 

I don’t feel like eating

I don’t feel like much

I’m angry and scattered

And so out of touch

 

All of the things that

Go through my mind

The lingering effects

The troubling kind

 

I dropped my guard

I looked away

A warning to all

It is here to stay

 

Swept Away

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

Swept Away

 

Everything you own

Everything you’ve worked and fought for

All of your working life

Everything your parents and grandparents

Worked and fought for

Swept away in a matter of hours

Your home, your truck, your car

All of your appliances and clothes

All of your tools and supplies

Your kids’ belongings

Your photographs and memories

All of it gone, swept away

By the storm of the century

Only it ain’t the storm of the century

Cause here it comes again

 

What do we do?

Where do we go?

Everyone we know is about as

Bad off as we are

That’s why we pray

We pray to God the government

Comes through

Cause we know damn well

The insurance companies won’t

 

Yeah, we been through hard times

Yeah, we’ve gone without

We’ve worked two shifts

We’ve worked two or three jobs

Just to pay down the debt

And carry one

But this feels different

Cause it is different

Our whole damned world

Swept away

 

Ghost Towns

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Ghost Towns

 

In the old west there were ghost towns

Towns that sprung up overnight

Along the trail of wagon trains

To feed the great migration

Along the path of gold and silver

To feed the dreams of poverty

Boom and bust towns

Towns that rose from the dust

Drowned in rotgut liquor

Played hard and fast with women

Indulged in life’s forbidden pleasures

And vanished like a dream

Like a wanton drunken dream

People came and settled in

Until the gold dried up

Until the railroad moved on

Until the boom went bust

 

We’re about to enter a new age

Of the boom-and-bust ghost towns

Desert towns deserted

For lack of drinking water

For lack of irrigation

Towns overrun by rust and waste

Towns that bet it all on false promises

False gods, false prophets and false profits

Towns that thrived on agriculture

Towns that imploded on technology

Gambling towns and tourist towns

Towns that used to court life

Before the party ended

Now all that remains are memories

And ghosts

 

The Purge

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

The Purge

 

What happened on January Sixth?

Nefarious purpose is glaringly clear

Destruction of evidence is a crime

The eyes of justice are bearing

Down on the agents of government

Who erased essential documents

Leaving their complicity most evident

Their motives demented and bent

 

They covered the crime of the century

To serve their treasonous boss

Who unleashed his terrible fury

Threatened them all with such loss

As the strongest of men could not bear

Were they cowards or were they corrupt?

With the republic at stake, who cares?

They purged the republic of trust

Now it’s time for them to be purged

Let us do what we can and must

Let justice and honor be served

For until they are gone one and all

Americans should be appalled

 

Congo Compromise

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

Congo Compromise

 

At a time when global warming

Kills people by the thousands

In every corner of the world

The Congo decides to auction off

Its rain forest for oil and gas development

Blood for oil has become the norm

The Congo has an excuse

They are not alone in compromise

 

The European Union reclassifies liquid gas

As a source of clean, green energy

As all of Europe from Stockholm to Madrid

From London to Naples

Suffers its hottest temperatures

In the history of recorded time

Europeans have an excuse

They are dependent on Russian oil

 

America has its own compromise

But it is time we recognized

There will always be an excuse

We can no longer allow our reasons

To block the way of action

In the case of the Republic of Congo

The wealthy nations of the world

(sans China, Russia and Brazil)

Must purchase the rain forests

To ban oil and gas development

 

Is it enough?  No, but it is a step

Can we afford it?  Yes.

We cannot afford not to do it

 

The Worm Turns

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

The Worm Turns

 

The hearings drew a picture

That everyone could view

The former president was behind it

It is so obviously true

 

The loyalists who backed him

Have fully earned their shame

Though they ran from the mob

They’re still playing the party game

 

In case you didn’t see them

Here is what you missed

Instead of being worried

The president was in bliss

 

He planned the whole affair

He roused them to a fury

Now he sits in Mar-a-Lago

Afraid to face a jury