A Human Stampede (Seoul)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

A Human Stampede

 

A stampede of cattle or bison

We can almost understand

Such animals act in concert

One following another

In panic and horror

 

A stampede of humans

Should never happen

 

A mindless mass moving as one

Spurred by a moment of terror

The terror creeps inside the mind

Replacing faculties of critical thought

Supplanting common sense

Generating a wave of motion

Without direction or guidance

Only an instinct to escape

By any means at all costs

 

In Seoul the human stampede

Cost over a hundred fifty lives

Leaving behind a trail of tears

An absence in so many families

A void in so many communities

For generations to come

 

The tragedy reminds us what happens

When the mind becomes the masses

When fear and terror rules the mob

When the one surrenders to the many

 

We are many on a small fragile planet

We must learn to live together

Without sacrificing ourselves

Without losing our individual souls

 

We mourn for the people of Seoul

Their sorrow is our sorrow

Our tears are joined to theirs

Today we are all Koreans

One planet, one destiny

Many parts, one whole

 

Enemies of the Earth

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

Enemies of the Earth

 

Destroyers of the rain forest

From the Amazon to the Artic

Vampires of life on earth

Pirates of exploitation

 

It begins with logging

Clear cutting vast swaths of forest

Trees older than any nation

Wiped from the planet

To make way for corporate agriculture

Which in turn gives way to drilling for oil

Mining for precious metals

Injecting the earth with chemicals

Until the once fertile soil

Becomes a toxic wasteland

Unfit for human or animal habitation

Now comes urban development

Concrete towns and cities

That choke the good earth

Where the forest used to be

 

A crime against nature

A crime against the planet

And all life forms it sustains

 

Bolsonaro, British Petroleum

ExxonMobil, Dow Chemical…

Enemies of the earth

A legacy of destruction

 

Epic Killers

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD HISTORY

The Epic Killers (The Killing Spirit)

 

The epic killers of history

Enjoy a modest reputation

By comparison to what they did

It merits investigation

 

Mao was an epic killer

Known for his little red book

Many thousands lost their lives

Though Chinese history will not look

 

Stalin was an epic killer

Who purged political enemies

Execution was his trademark

He killed men as if they were fleas

 

Custer and Crook were epic killers

Sand Creek and Washita River

They massacred women and children

With a coldness that makes you shiver

 

But the most epic killers in history

Are those yet to come

For the killing spirit is alive and well

And the scale will leave us numb

 

(see Wasichu: The Killing Spirit

By Jack Random)

 

The Flood in Nigeria

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

The Flood

 

Nigeria faces an epic flood

Ethiopia confronts biblical starvation

While the world discusses climate change

Much of Africa pleads for salvation

 

The flood in Nigeria reminds us

That those who pay the greatest price

Of global warming are often those

Who gained the thinnest slice

 

The famine in Ethiopia informs us

That the effects of industrialization

Do not spare the relatively innocent

But impact equally all nations

 

Islands sink in the deep blue sea

Crops fail and rivers run dry

We pray to our gods but cannot wonder

The clear and obvious reasons why

 

A Fragile Republic

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

A Fragile Republic

 

The experiment that began centuries ago

With a declaration of independence

That survived a multitude of assaults

That survived the Alien and Sedition Acts

That endured the institution of slavery

That triumphed in a bloody civil war

That outlasted Jim Crow reconstruction

That overcame a Great Depression

That suffered through attempted genocide

That pushed through women’s suffrage

That demanded essential reforms

A constant moving forward toward

The better angels of our being

Now totters on the razor’s edge

of popular autocracy

 

The question now to every one of us

is whether we will be the generation

That allowed our democracy to slip away

on the promise of a charlatan?

 

Stealing Children

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Stealing Children

 

The depravity of the great dictator

Drives to a new low

Stealing children in Ukraine

Sending them to Russian homes

Feeding them with Russian lies

To grow up with hatred in their hearts

To fight against their own

 

Have you not enough orphans in Russia?

To train with endless brainwashing?

With needs that suit your purposes

To become loyal soldiers

To arm with Russian weapons

To send into brutal wars

 

To steal the children of another land

To fight your dirty wars

Sets a new bar for immorality

That will reverberate through the ages

Drawing the tears of mothers

For generations to come

 

We Got Lucky

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

We Got Lucky

 

We pushed hospitals to the breaking point

Exposed the weakness of our senior care

Watched the president create events

of mass infection, insult the medical profession,

contract Covid, survive through extreme

measures and intense care, only to pronounce

himself superman, the great and invincible,

and advise us not to be afraid…

 

Only a million Americans died

 

We got lucky

We got lucky that the covid roulette shuffle

settled on a variation that is virulent but

not particularly lethal

 

We got lucky

We got lucky that medical science kept up

with the process of transmutation

 

We got lucky when we elected a new

president who took the virus seriously

 

We’re still lucky

Because the virus is not done

Because masses of people still

have not be vaccinated

Because even more people have

not been boosted and reboosted

Because winter is coming

and the virus is waiting

 

We got lucky that Covid 19 is not

the Black Plague or the Spanish Flu

 

We got lucky this time

Next time (there will be a next time)

With so many people in denial

With so many people believing

they can wish away a plague

With so many people having learned

the wrong lessons

Next time we may not be lucky

 

After all

Only a million Americans died

 

Rats

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Rats                                                                                                                

 

Rats in the rafters

Rats in the walls

Rats are roaming congressional halls

Rats in the war room

Rats in the stalls

Rats awaiting the president’s call

 

The Magats claimed it was all corrupt

The stench oozing from drains and ducts

They were right with such sick irony

As they enacted blatant tyranny

 

Rats in the White House

Rats on hold

Rats in service to the president’s fold

Rats in the office

Rats in the field

Rats that would strike an iceman cold

 

They tried to kill democracy

This time they came up short

Next time they will make sure

The rats will guard the fort

 

Zaporizhzhia Catastrophe

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Zaporizhzhia Catastrophe

 

By order of the commander

In the safety of the Kremlin

They took possession of Zaporizhzhia

In the early stages of the invasion

And crippled the facility

With their own deadly missiles

Disarming critical safety systems

Risking nuclear catastrophe

 

What is this calculation

That the winds blow only

In the direction of his enemies

That it will ravage the west

And spare the east

That it will punish the world

Into submission?

 

The depth of depravity necessary

To cause with malice aforesight

A catastrophe of epic proportion

A cloud of nuclear radiation

Across Europe and much of Asia

A cloud of death and destruction

That would alter the course of history

And tarnish the human soul

 

Greenland Melting

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

Greenland Melting

 

Greenland was never green

It was always white as snow

But as the ice sheet melts

Our worries only grow

 

Greenland is going green now

But no one celebrates

The rising ocean stuns us

All actions seem too late

 

The land of ice will melt

There is no turning back

The earth is getting warmer

The lights are going black

 

Soon everyone will know

What Greenland has long known

The costs of burning oil

Have grown and grown and grown

 

Saudi Payback

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Saudi Payback

 

For decades we have turned our backs

On violations of basic human rights

Because the industrial world needs oil

We’ve put our differences out of sight

 

They have long denied women’s rights

They have abused the rights of labor

They have sponsored Islamic terrorism

Committed crimes against their neighbor

 

We have given them our weapon systems

We’ve asked little in return

Now that we need cooperation

They let the alliance burn

 

The time has come for payback

The days of friendship are done

If they want to curry Putin’s favor

They can go without our guns

Missiles in Kiev

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Missiles in Kiev

 

Missiles in Kiev

Targeting civilians

Innocents are dead

Costing Russia billions

That could be used instead

On paving a new way

If you keep pushing forward

There is a price to pay

How will you respond

When Moscow is in play?

 

You started this war

An act of pure aggression

You opened the door

With your moral regression

Now you fire your missiles

On the capital of Ukraine

Your own people must wonder

If you’re thoroughly insane

If you escalate this war

In this and every way

It will not be long before

Moscow is in play

 

China and India Abstained

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Abstention

 

On the question of aggression

The annexations in Ukraine

The world stood up with dignity

China and India abstained

 

Comes a time to take a stand

A time to go against the grain

A time to stop and take measure

A time to get on board the train

But when the votes were counted

On the matter of Ukraine

A handful stood with Putin

China and India abstained

 

In the history of our race

There will come a time and place

When the world must stand together

To aid catastrophes of weather

Helping one will help us all

To rise when would fall

Some will answer without pause

Some will disobey the laws

Some will rise to the occasion

Some will protest the invasion

Some will say it’s all in vain

Some will vote and some abstain

In the hour of great need

Some will cry and some will bleed

Some fall silent, some complain

China and India abstained

 

MAGA

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

MAGA

 

Madmen and grifters arise!

Politicians in disguise

The mother of all gargantuan asses

It cuts across all classes

Muse of ghoulish antebellum gardeners

Saddle up and hop on pardners

Morons and goose-steppers act

White is right and that’s a fact

Meddling awful greasy antagonists

All eyes drawn to our protagonist

Moping in agreement, groaning ascent

The mood is up, the mind is bent

As modern ancients gain anxiety

A scourge upon our whole society

Milling arachnids give us answers

It spreads like a malignant cancer

Maudlin associates in Greater Antilles

The very thought gives me the willies

Make it all go away

We don’t need them today

 

Freedom in Chains

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Freedom in Chains

 

If your sense of freedom

Requires putting others in chains

Your freedom is a prison

Like lightning in the rain

 

Freedom is a right

For yourself and not others

When your actions infringe

On your sisters and brothers

You have crossed a line

That should never be crossed

When your rights restrain mine

Every one of us has lost

 

Freedom for one

Must bring freedom for all

If it fails that simple test

Do not answer the call