The Fight for Democracy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

The Fight for Democracy

 

Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel

Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua

Viktor Orban in Hungary

Recep Erdogan in Turkey

 

The fight for democracy

Takes to the streets

Spread the word of truth

To everyone you meet

 

From Budapest to Istanbul

From Jerusalem to Managua

From Tallahassee to Tbilisi

From Atlanta to Kiev

 

The enemies of democracy

Growing bolder, growing strong

We’ve set off the alarm bells

We’ve seen it coming all along

 

The brazen warnings in Taiwan

The crackdown in Hong Kong

They want to crush free press

In every way that’s wrong

They want to curb the right to vote

They’re pushing hard and strong

 

If we want to keep our freedom

If we want to keep our rights

We will have to grasp reality

We’re in a long hard fight

 

No one said it would be easy

The struggle never ends

Self-government will survive

If only we defend

 

The people’s right to speak

The people’s right to choose

As long as we hold strong

The people cannot lose

Florida Sleeps

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Florida Sleeps

 

They complain about being woke

I don’t know what they mean

They feel oppressed by our progress

From everything I’ve seen

 

They don’t like those kids in Parkland

They want guns in every home

They despise the ones who dance

And those who wear a darker tone

 

While the nation marches forward

They’re enamored with the past

While others push to get there first

They’re determined to be last

 

They don’t care about our freedom

They don’t care if mothers weep

While the rest of us awaken

The state of Florida sleeps

 

Corday

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: HISTORY

 

Corday

 

The nights were long and trying

The world was strange and cold

The order of things was dying

Like a cartwheel grown too old

Upon this scene a ghostly shadow

Who found each footstep trying

As the days gave way to nighttime

As the nights gave way to day

There came the spirit of a deadly thing

Her name was Charlotte Corday

 

They let her pass the city walls

Let her through the city gates

I’ve come to serve the cause, she said

I’ve come to seal my fate

The night was eerie strange and gray

The hour dark and late

She paused to take the moment in

But the moment would not wait

 

Who are you? said Marat

Through his fever twisted mind

Have you come to give me comfort?

Are you a spirit soft and kind?

I’m not that kind of spirit

I must ask you: Are you blind?

I come with dagger hidden

This moment to unwind

It is you Marat I’ve come to slay

What ghost is at my side? he asked

My name is Charlotte Corday

 

I’ve seen the bodies of the dead

I’ve seen what you have wrought

I’ve seen a pile of severed heads

Is this the world you’ve sought?

You’ve left us with no mystery

I’ve come to play my part

My name is etched in history

A dagger to your heart

 

A century or more from now

They’ll remember this fateful day

A fevered madman named Marat

An assassin named Corday

 

(regards to Peter Weiss & Percy Shelly)

The Putin Caucus

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

The Putin Caucus

 

They walk the sacred halls

As if it is a game

But they answer to the call

Of someone else’s name

 

They are the Putin caucus

They serve his want and need

They answer to the Donald

They answer to his greed

 

They are American in name

They are Russian by their deeds

They want to sever fair Ukraine

And plant there Russian seeds

 

It is time to send them home

As our democracy demands

We’ll have no foreign agents

Who follow enemy commands

 

The days and weeks ahead

Will tell us where we stand

Are they but few and scattered?

Are they the leaders of the band?

 

Ukraine is in the balance

Their freedom and their fate

Abandon our alliance

They become a Russian state

 

The Summit of Knowledge (Revised)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

The Summit of Knowledge (Revised)

 

We are a unique species

Unique to the experience of life on earth

We are driven in the pursuit of knowledge

We have invented language to that purpose

We have invented writing and the printing press

We have invented science to reach higher

in the quest for understanding

We have invented the arts and philosophy

to reach beyond the limits of science

We have invented computers and

advanced technology

We have invented and invested in institutions

of higher learning

We have pushed and prodded the depths

of human comprehension

Higher and higher and higher we reach

until at last we have breached the very

summit of all knowledge

and we have come to this conclusion:

We know nothing

We have always known nothing

We will never learn for there is nothing

to learn beyond the simple facts

of life and death

We are here and then we are gone

We are alive and then we are not

We may choose to be good to each other

or we may choose to be cruel

It is better to be good. 

 

Europe Welcomes Zelensky

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Europe Welcomes Zelensky

 

Zelensky takes his rightful place

Among the European nations

That still believe in the enlightened

To lead the world to its salvation

Once again Putin miscalculates

The alliance will not fold

He thrusts his bare aggression

His brutality clear and bold

But Europe stands united

While Putin suddenly seems old

You will not claim this victory

Your failure becomes clear

Disgrace will be your legacy

The end is drawing near

 

Viva Lula!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Viva Lula!

 

Viva Lula de Silva!

For doing what is right

Bolsonaro fled the country

Like a fugitive in flight

Brazil now protects the Amazon

From poaching and rogue miners

The end of forest clearing

The lowdown dirty whiners

Whose only faith is greed

They took all they could take

Without regard to need

They stole the nation’s resources

Gave the government a share

If they had their dirty way

They’d sell the water and the air

Now Brazil can forge ahead

As a defender of the earth

An end to massive exploitation

Show the world what they’re worth

 

Birth of the Nation

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Birth of the Nation

 

Two hundred forty-seven years ago

We founded a new nation

Rich in ideals and principles

Poor in integrity

Crippled with hypocrisy

 

For two hundred forty-seven years

We have advanced and retreated

Fought for a better world

Yielded to degradation

Fought for justice and equality

Fought for slavery and genocide

 

We have expanded the electorate

We have pulled it back again

We have enshrined justice for all

But withheld it for minorities

 

We were born with great promise

For all of humankind

To not know we have fallen short

One would have to be blind

 

The greatness of our nation

Is that we always push ahead

We acknowledge our shortcomings

We pay tribute to the dead

 

We may never find the answers

But we will always find a way

To improve the way things are

To ensure a better day

 

Mass Casualties

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CATASTROPHES

Mass Casualties

 

A massive earthquake strikes Turkey and Syria

And all our earthly differences vanish

Like shadows in the sun

The horror goes to the heart of being human

Thousands of living beating hearts no longer beat

Hundreds of children cry out for mamas that are no more

Mothers screaming for mercy

Fathers beating their chests

As if anger could raise the dead

Tears of the living

Blood of the buried

 

May all who are able answer the call

May all who are willing lend a hand

This is a time of need

A time when all else recedes

We are conscious being sharing a small planet

Now more than ever we are in this together

 

We have the same dreams

We breathe the same air

In times of need we care

 

New Beginning

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

New Beginning

 

In the wonder we call life

There is no greater miracle

Within our sense or sight

Than the turning of the years

The come and going of the light

 

We say a long goodbye

Each December come to pass

With a cheer and then a sigh

For all things that cannot last

No matter how we wish

No matter how we cry

The years roll by too quickly

All things that live must die

 

But there will be another year

And another will roll by

As we hold our loved ones near

With a long and wishful sigh

 

The Mole

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

The Mole

 

An agent of the FBI

On the take of the Kremlin

A high-placed Putin spy

Strikes the heart like a gremlin

Our intelligence, ears and eyes

The integrity of our nation

Our knowledge of our enemy’s lies

Served up by invitation

 

It has become more than clear

Our services need a purge

We will realize our worst fears

Like a patriotic dirge

People planted in careers

Who betrayed us for their greed

People trusted and endeared

A betrayal grown from seed

It all seems strange and weird

But we must follow where it leads

 

It is time to weed them out

Track them down like rabid dogs

Let them stand up to the doubts

Check their records and their logs

Until we know what it’s about

There is no one we can trust

Let no one in and no one out

Until we’ve finished up the bust

 

(Note: A Kremlin agent discovered

in the FBI hierarchy.)

 

World War IV

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

World War IV

 

What if World War IV began

And no one bothered to tell us?

World Wars I and II were epic

Engaging all the nations on earth

There was no escaping it

World War III was the Cold War

Which never was cold

Ask Vietnam if the war was cold

Ask Korea and Nicaragua

 

Now we are engaged in a fourth world war

A war that involves all continents

A war that threatens all nations

A war of autocracy against democracy

China fights an economic war

Seeking dominance over precious metals

Exploiting an army of cheap labor

With Taiwan and Hong Kong in the balance

Russia fights the aggressive war in Ukraine

Proxy wars in Yemen and Syria

Mercenary wars in Africa

A world devastated by global warming

Reeling from the latest pandemic

Teeters on the verge of collapse

Moving thoughtlessly to World War IV

 

Bolsonaro in Florida (Revised)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Bolsonaro in Florida

 

Bolsonaro bolted

Like the coward that he is

Lula de Silva won the election

Bolsonaro went to Florida

Was he greeted by DeSantis?

Fellow vaccination denier

Fellow virus minimizer

Did they toast the people they fooled?

Did they celebrate the truth they buried?

Did they mourn the people lost?

 

Did he join the Don at Mar-a-Lago?

Did they bring in the new year?

Did they plot the death of democracy?

Did they wonder what went wrong?

 

The new autocrats – Bolsonaro, DeSantis,

Trump – have all gone silent now

Are they huddled together planning

a brave new world?

Have they consulted the eastern star?

Do they dream a new alliance?

Will they rise or will they fall?

 

Go home Bolsonaro!

Go home and take your friends

The world has had enough of you

May your journey find an end

 

JFK

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: HISTORY

JFK

 

There are moments in our lives

Transcendent of all others

A loss that marks our souls

Like a sister or a brother

 

That day in Dallas sixty-three

Marked the sixties generation

The wound that made a nation bleed

Arrested our salvation

 

We had a dream of better days

A kinder fairer nation

That dream became a nightmare

A cold assassination

 

Someone somewhere has the answer

Who did the deed and why

The act that altered everything

The day our spirit died

 

We will return to Camelot

We take a solemn vow

Our promise and our faith renewed

A new world begins now