Even (Endless War)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WAR

Even (Endless War)

 

There’s a thought we learn as kids

At the heart of every war

You take one of mine

I take one of yours

 

As long as we’re even

There’s nothing to fight for

You take one of ours

We take one of yours

 

Like marbles in a circle

Or pieces on a chess board

You take one of mine

I take one of yours

 

Somewhere down the line

According to the lore

The game shifted:

You take one of mine

We’ll take two of yours

 

And so the game progressed

With better weapons and more

You take one of ours

We’ll take ten of yours

 

But something happens to the heart

When you open up that door

If you take one of mine

We’ll fight an endless war

 

And there is no way to stop it

The want of vengeance always grows

Until everyone is suffering

Where it ends nobody knows

 

Glorifying Killers

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GENOCIDE

 

Glorifying Killers

 

When you glorify a killer

You guarantee the killing will go on

When you turn your back on genocide

The ghosts of genocide remain

Waiting for a chance to rise from the dead

When you rewrite history with lies

History will rise to write the future

Bosnia / Darfur / Rwanda / Cambodia

Each time we are horrified

Each time we swear: Never again!

Yet we return to bear witness

Again and again

 

We return with our promises

We return with our tears

We return with our rage

We return with our fears

 

Yet we allow the glorification of killers

We allow the falsification of history

The promise of never again

Begins with the truth

No matter how painful

No matter how hard to bear

The children must learn the truth

My Lai / Sand Creek / Wounded Knee

The truth

The unvarnished truth

Twenty-Two Years

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUE HISTORY

Twenty-two Years (IXXI)

 

Twenty-two years

We remember clearly

What happened that day

Where we were

What we were doing

How it was first relayed

A plane flew into the World Trade Center

I once lived just down the avenue

Took the elevator to the top

Top of the world, ma!

Top of the world!

There was a transparent walkway

Connecting the two towers

Like the walkway over Grand Canyon

A sight so inspired you could

Hear the heartbeat of God

 

It was a mystery at first

A horribly tragic mystery

How could anyone fly into the tower?

Then it happened again

A plane hit the second tower

That’s when we knew

This tragedy – unlike so many others –

Would alter the fabric of our world

 

Twenty-two years later

We bear witness to what happened

That dreadful imprinted day

And all the horrors that followed

The mistakes that we made

 

Twenty-two years later

We know the Saudis were responsible

Not Iraq, not Iran, not Afghanistan

But the Saudis were our allies

Our oil buddies

Someone else had to take the blame

 

Twenty-two years later

We live with the consequences of

Decisions made that day

For those who do and those who do not

We bow our heads and pray

 

(For all the heroes of that fateful day

and all the days that followed.)

Colossal Errors

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUE HISTORY

Colossal Errors

 

It was a mistake to allow the electoral

college to survive beyond the year 2000

 

It was a mistake to waste decades pretending

manmade climate change was not real

 

It was a mistake not to prosecute LBJ

for the Gulf of Tonkin mythology

 

It was a mistake for Gerald Ford to pardon

Richard Nixon quid pro quo for his

crimes against democracy

 

It was a mistake to sacrifice American workers

to the gods of cheap labor in China, India and

other third world nations

 

It was a mistake to imprison millions of

poor Americans in the name of

the war on drugs

 

It was a mistake to attack Afghanistan and

Iraq for the crimes of a Saudi terrorist sect

 

It was a mistake not to outlaw designer

districting and disenfranchisement

long, long ago

 

It was a mistake to rip the heart out

of Voting Rights and Civil Rights

 

Our proud nation has neglected so many

essential institutions of democracy for

so very long it would take a miracle to

save it now without unspeakable hardship

The Angry Earth

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

The Angry Earth

 

The earth is not angry

The earth does not yearn for vengeance

The earth does not bathe in sorrow

The earth does not rejoice

The earth is indifferent to the plight of man

The earth observes with abandon

 

As the hurricanes grow and strike terror

As a monster quake buries Morocco

As behemoth storms roll across the land

As tsunamis spring from ocean depths

As floods turn deserts into mud

As glaciers fall into swollen seas

As people are ravaged by disease

The earth does not raise its brow

The earth does not cry out in pain

 

The earth is not angry

The earth is indifferent to our fate

If humanity wishes to find blame

She should look to her own reflection

 

Ineligible

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP

Ineligible

 

It is insufficient that he openly

sympathized with white supremacists

 

It is insufficient that he neglected a

global pandemic

 

It is insufficient that he stood with

the international enemies of democracy

 

It is insufficient that he pressured a

foreign leader to serve his political cause

 

It is insufficient that he served a foreign

adversary in degrading our allies

 

It is insufficient that his only legislative

accomplishment was a tax break for the

corporate elite

 

It is insufficient that he profited

from holding high office

 

But when he called for, organized and

incited insurrection he became ineligible

for the presidency

 

The Bush Men

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: HISTORY

The Bush Men

 

Some never know when to move on

They hang on past their expiration date

It happens to old baseball players

It happens to actors and politicians

It happens to people who can’t let go

They become the subjects of pity

They become jokes at cocktail parties

They misinterpret the laughter as joy

Sometimes we can share the laughs

Other times it’s just too pathetic

It summons memories of tragedy

It recalls hypocrisy and lies

It brings an ache to our hearts

For example: The Bush Men

The neoconservative war mongers

The ones who dragged us into war

On the pretense of global terrorism

The lies still bite

The wounds still bleed

Their crimes against humanity

Still beg for retribution

Lower the curtain, turn out the lights

And bid them walk away

They have no place on the world stage

Walk away and say goodnight

 

Putin Makes the Rounds

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: PUTIN

Putin Makes the Rounds

 

Putin makes the rounds

Erdogan and Kim Jong Un

Walking on shaky grounds

Striking a discordant tune

 

Putin wants it all

The weapons and the grain

On the border of China

In the war on Ukraine

 

Watch out for what you wish for

It just might come true

Knocking at your door

Your debt is coming due

 

Putin is a pariah

Everywhere he goes

Acting like the messiah

His horns begin to show

 

They don’t like you in the east

They like you less in Istanbul

They despise like a beast

Or they regard you as a fool

 

Blood Moon

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

Blood Moon

 

Blood moon springs from a fire sky

Blood water flows in the canyon

Coyotes run and eagles fly

All hope here abandon

 

What more can we do or say?

How might we atone?

Would you have us bow and pray?

Will you leave us now alone?

 

Blood moon in a sky of gray

Streaking through the valley

Haze chasing back the day

Hiding in the alleys

 

What more can we say or do?

On whom can we depend?

Change our course from false to true

The beginning of the end

 

Blowback Ukraine

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Blowback Ukraine

You thought you could attack Ukraine

With absolute impunity

Missiles in the capital

Bombing in the community

Now the bombs come back at you

Now you pay the price

For the madman in the Kremlin

Who will never stop to think twice

About the killing of civilians

Or the bombing of the schools

But turn the bombs around and

They begin to look the fools

Now they’re taking bombs in Russia

And their people wonder why

Putin told them they were safe

Now bombs are falling form the sky

Tell your leaders to desist

This war has gone too far

If you have to fire missiles

Why not shoot them at the stars?

 

Enemies of the Earth

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

Enemies of the Earth

 

Once there was a highest court

That cared about the air and water

The planet was our mother

The water was her daughter

But now the court is dark and grim

Guided by the holy dollar

The prospects of the planet dim

They care little for the land

As we stand before them pleading

The justices demand:

How much are you worth?

Bow down before your betters

The enemies of the earth

 

We bring a plague of shadows

We breathe a curse of hell

Our evil hearts begin to show

Sound warnings, ring the bells!

Who cares if skies grow darker?

What counts a million lives?

We’ve passed another marker

As corporate profits rise

To a generation of mutations

We will inevitably give birth

The future will remember us

The enemies of the earth

 

Necessary Changes

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Necessary Changes

 

Change does not come from magic

Change does not come from wishes

Change that is not worked for and earned

Comes from a constant wasting away

Foundations crumble from neglect

Machines rust and seize up

Institutions do the same

 

Necessary change must be planned

Necessary change must be plotted

Evolutionary change from revolutionary thought

The rest is only disintegration

 

Do nothing and watch it rot

Organize and watch it grow

We cannot be something we are not

Evolutionary changes are slow

 

Redemption

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP

Redemption

 

They say he is redeemed

He was a man of sin

But he has bowed before the lord

He is not who he has been

He has yielded to temptation

But now he stays the course

But you cannot have redemption

Without remorse

 

He acknowledges his sins

But that was in the past

Would he do it all again?

How long would it last?

He pleads for his redemption

Now that justice is on course

But you cannot have redemption

Without remorse

 

He is obsessed with vengeance

His mind is filled with grief

He is willing to show sorrow

But it defies belief

The threat of years in prison

Is a powerfully moving force

And you cannot have redemption

Without remorse