The Danube

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RIVER SERIES

 

The Danube (River Series)

 

The Danube runs from eastern Germany

Through Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia

Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine

There it empties into the Black Sea

Where it has watched human history

From the front row balcony

 

It has seen the wars that humans fight

It has seen the stone, bronze and iron ages

It has traced the rise and fall of the Roman empire

The mongrels and the Ottomans

Atilla the Hun and Alexander the Great

It has watched the crusades of Christians

And the conquests of the moors

 

The grand Danube river suffered through

The age of industry as massive pollution

Filled its waters with chemical waste

 

The Danube is running low now

As Europe’s five-hundred-year drought

Wipes away the river’s vibrant flow

Exposing relics of the second world war

Altering flood plains and threatening crops

Protestors in Bucharest plead for revise

As water supplies are rationed

Hydroelectric power is reduced

And river transport is compromised

 

Those who have depended on the Danube

For hundreds and thousands of years

Are reaching the desperate hours

We cannot go on pretending

Nothing has changed when

Everything has changed

 

The river Danube is running low

Before long it may run dry

Unless we take drastic action now

 

Send Us Your Working Poor

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: IMMIGRATION

Send Us Your Working Poor

 

Texas sends migrants to Manhattan

In what they consider a declaration of war

But with a severe shortage of labor

There is a reality we cannot ignore

 

Send us your poor, your huddled masses

We need them at restaurants and bars

We don’t need a war between classes

We don’t need your right to bear arms

But we’ll take Willie Nelson and Austin

We acknowledge that Texas has charms

 

So send us the workers you do not want

We need them to help fight our fires

We don’t need you to take us backwards

But we do need a whole lot of hires

We need nurses and teachers and aides

Send them before ours retire

 

We need them to work in our plants

We need them to work in our schools

All we ask is an honest day’s labor

And we’d like you to honor our rules

We’ll give you a good hearty welcome

Unlike those Texas fools

 

Need to Believe

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Need to Believe

 

“I want to believe.”  X Files

 

The key to understanding America

In the early twenty-first century

Is to realize our need to believe

That everything is fine

The march of progress is unstoppable

Our rights can never be taken

Our freedom is secure

The great warming is just a rumor

American greatness is beyond question

American democracy cannot die

And every generation will be greater

Than the last

 

We so need to believe the mythology

That we are willing to abandon reason

Eager to demonize science

Happy to discard medicine

Ever anxious to believe that a two-bit

Con man is our greatest hope

 

Americans have always been

Creatures of divine faith

Credulous to the ultimate extreme

Yet we have always shaken

The chains of gullibility

At times of historical need

 

Maybe this time is different

Maybe this time we’ll sleepwalk

Through the days of Armageddon

Or maybe we’ll awaken in time

To understand that only we

Can arrest the decree

 

Order and Chaos

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Order and Chaos

 

Organisms in nature seek chaos

A natural dissolution of order

A progressive rusting away

 

Despite the way of nature

Humans are driven to create order

Structures imposed upon the chaos

Like dams upon the Mississippi

Like agriculture in the barren desert

Like roadmaps in the expanse of space

 

We have created concrete cities

Highways, bridges, and railways

We have created tunnels beneath us

Pathways in the skies above

We navigate the deep blue seas

 

We have constructed a civilization

To stand several millennia

Knowing it will not likely endure

The next wave of destruction

 

Chaos is the way of the world

And we poor humans

Can only hope or pray

That some small remnants

Remain in the rubble of

The final days

 

The New Front

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

The New Front (Ukraine)

 

The war in Ukraine has taken a turn

We have begun the long game

A shortage of petrol across Europe

The Ukrainians take the blame

 

The Dow Jones has taken a dive

How much more can people take?

Before we suffer financial pain

The Ukrainians we must forsake

 

But if we recognize the eminent danger

That Vladimir Putin has in mind

We will hold on for the long road

We will stand and hold the line

 

We can be sure the Russian people

Have suffered more than all of us

They must depose their monstrous leader

To rebuild the bridge of trust

 

Ukrainian Independence

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL DEMOCRACY

Ukrainian Independence

 

Three decades ago and a year

Sing a song, give a cheer

Ukraine became a new nation

The Soviet collapse was their salvation

 

After seventy years of subjugation

Ukraine declared itself a nation

As the Soviet empire crumbled

Like a tower made of sand

A cry of freedom throughout the land

The empire is dead!

Say goodnight and go to bed

 

Three decades and a year today

Ukraine became a free nation

But the darkness always loomed

The prospect of an invasion

 

Now Ukraine must fight again

Until the world alas stands strong

Against oppressors and invaders

Against a clear and evil wrong

 

Inherent Evil

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Inherent Evil (Ode to Putin)

 

Born under a bad sign

Never had a chance

The stars aligned on the dark side

Of a bitter and lonely moon

A bad seed

A genetic predisposition

The curse of a wicked sister

Inherent evil

 

Does it enter the soul

Like a virus enters the body?

Does it embed itself and

Spread like a malignant tumor?

Or is it present at birth?

Waiting like a predator in hiding?

 

Clouds of darkness reign

On the seventh hour

Of the seventh day

In the month of seven moons

Caw of the crow!

Howl of the wolf!

The day the earth stood still

Night of the dead

Preordained

The way it always was

The way it had to be

 

Or maybe … it is random chance

Maybe it’s a roll of the dice

Seven come eleven

Snake eyes

Nothing to be done

Lay back and let it happen

Or pray to the gods of mercy

For a kinder gentler world

The Return of Polio

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL HEALTH

The Return of Polio

 

You have a right to believe

Anything you want to believe

As long as it does no harm

To any other living being

But when your beliefs

Become weapons that harm and kill

You no longer possess that right

 

You may choose to believe

Against all empirical evidence

Against all accumulated knowledge

For reasons political or societal

That vaccines are works of the devil

That science and medicine are facades

Invented to control the masses

That polio and the Spanish flu

Were not the threats we are told they were

But when your actions or inactions

Result in the needless suffering

Of your children and mine

Then you have lost your way

And must somehow be reclaimed

No one wants a mandate

But in matters of health and survival

Mandates become necessary

 

Democracy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Democracy

 

Democracy is not a party

It is the foundation of a free society

It is beyond and above party

It has no interest in which side wins

 

Democracy is the soul of America

The bond that holds free nations together

That distinguishes Europe from Russia

That divides Russia from Ukraine

That separates China from India

Republics from despotic states

 

Democracy is the protector of human rights

The defender of free speech

The enforcer of the people’s will

The ideology that found its modern birth

In the United States of America

That formed its conception in the Magna Carta

and the Declaration of Independence

 

Democracy is not a party

It does not care about social issues

It does not care about religions

It does not care about abortion

It does not care about tax rates

It does not care about regulation

It does not care about prayer in the schools

Or the right to privacy

 

Democracy has no horse in the race

It is the race

It is the people

It is America

It is the hope of the world

And the promise of humanity

Yes We Can

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Yes We Can

 

The former leader is a blatant criminal

His future candidacy must be banned

But you say we can’t do that

Not to a former president

Not to the chosen man

Say it together: Yes we can

 

They planned and staged an insurrection

He was the leader of the band

But you say it doesn’t matter

You cannot prosecute the man

Say it loud and say it clear:

Yes we can

 

He’ll do it again if he gets away with it

It’s the only thing he understands

But you say we can’t do that

After all he was the man

Say it loud and say it louder:

Yes we can

 

He stashed away damning evidence

Fraud and deception is his brand

But you can’t imprison a former president

You can’t do that to the man

Say it again with conviction:

Yes we can

 

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