The Love Letters

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

The Love Letters

 

Remember those charming love letters

That our (former) president loved so much

Written with boundless affection

With a gentle and giving touch

 

All of you who have spoken ill

Of the man in the Oval Office

Who have blasted your obscenities

From the beds of moving trucks

If we lived under Kim Jong-un

You would find yourself imprisoned

Incapacitated or worse

Condemned to reeducation

Under the cloud of the leader’s curse

 

Remember the brotherly romance

Of our then president and the Vlad

The animosity that we showed him

Made our leader extremely sad

 

All of you who have expressed doubts

About the sanctity of our elections

If we lived under Putin’s rule

Your votes would be cast out

You children would be sent to fight

For the conquest of Ukraine

Your freedom would be compromised

Beyond all recognition

You would find yourself against a wall

In a compromised position

 

Be grateful for what we have

Be careful not to lose it

If democracy is not your bag

We can end it if you choose it

 

America Found

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

America Found (the Awakening)

 

We have lost our way before

We are not a perfect nation

We regarded the protectors of the land

As something less than human

As beasts to be exterminated

Or tamed and put in cages

It took centuries to awaken

To know the error of our ways

But we have awakened

To set forth a better day

 

We enslaved generations of blacks

We denied their basic humanity

We put them in chains

When they demanded their freedom

We hunted them down like rabid dogs

We whipped and hobbled them

We killed and raped them

It took centuries to awaken

To accept the truth that we betrayed

But we have awakened

To a more enlightened way

 

We have fought unprovoked wars

Unjust wars of mass destruction

We have followed poor leaders

We have embraced corporate greed

We have turned the clock backwards

We have stripped away rights

We have sanctioned child labor

We have done evil things

In our God’s holy name

But we have always awakened

In the spirit of righteous shame

 

America Lost

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

America Lost

 

America has lost her way

Long before Election Day

The stage is set

The courts are let

The sycophants are in their place

 

The vote no longer matters

Amidst the scattered chatter

The fix is in

The losers win

A head upon the platter

 

What is false and what is true?

Sinclair disseminates fake news

Russia plays

And China too

The people haven’t got a clue

 

The nation cries in deep distress

Democracy is at its best

When people know

What’s going on

We’re failing every single test

 

Time will tell if we survive

To keep the sacred dream alive

We cannot fail

The world depends

On us to find our patriot’s pride

 

Heat Rises

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

Heat Rises

 

Heat rises

Let it rise

Let there be no alibis

Follow the stars as the crow flies

Heat rises

Let it rise

 

We have endured a thousand trials

We will endure a thousand more

And we have walked a thousand miles

Just to open up this door

 

Heat rises

Let it rise

Let us see through hollow lies

Take it in and breathe a sigh

Heat rises

Let it rise

 

We will take it all in stride

Every hardship in our way

And we will find the other side

We will play it as it lays

 

Heat rises

Let it rise

Let there be no alibis

Fools fall, embrace the wise

Heat rises

Let it rise

 

The Healing

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

The Healing

 

There’s a shadow moving across the land

A great cloud of dust and sorrow

Everywhere it goes the people fall

And pray for rain tomorrow

To wash away this evil spell

This sickness of the soul

Some say it is the will of god

An undoing of the whole

 

But what god is so spiteful?

A god of ruin and disease

We need a god of healing

A god of mercy if you please

 

We know it is the work of man

And not the work of heaven

This scourge across a barren land

The horrors come in seven

Pestilence and drought

Fire, wind and thunder

Wars that never ever end

Waves that take us under

 

Pray for the great healing

No matter who or where you are

Pray to the god you know

Pray to the healing star

 

Fighting Phantoms

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Fighting Phantoms

 

Wingnuts of the reactionary right

Are fighting phantoms of imagination

Summoning ghosts of the distant past

To save an imaginary nation

 

Their enemies are all communists

Scum of the earthly kind

Like Don Quixote’s windmills

Their myths will soon unwind

 

They’re certain the people are stupid

They’ll believe anything they’re told

But their threats of retribution

Are getting more than a little old

 

You can say the sky is falling

But if you say it more than twice

The people will smell a rat

And their “leaders” will pay a price

 

So tell us again how our freedom

Depends on a new president

Who is sworn to Vladimir Putin

Our confidence is spent

 

The Fall of Modi

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

The Fall of Modi

 

The rise of Modi was swift and sure

He ruled by the iron fist

He believes in a nation strong and pure

But his policies run amiss

 

Now the moderates return to power

In partnership with the Alliance

A new moderation rules the hour

It’s the end of the Modi defiance

 

Democracy is an evolving thing

It gives what it has taken

The silent ones are now to sing

The once favored are forsaken

 

It is better for the body whole

It is better for the nation

It is better for the Indian soul

It is worthy of celebration

 

Find the Light

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: PEACE

 

Find the Light

 

In a world of constant trials

Where tragedy tempts the heart of darkness

Where catastrophes strike with little notice

Where the innocent are unprotected

Where women and children die on

Battlefields and paths of destruction

Where greed has become a virtue

Where homelessness awaits misfortune

Where compassion is a weakness

Where vengeance is admired

Along with bitterness and loathing

Take time to raise your eyes

To see beyond the smoke and dust

To see the love beneath the hatred

To sense the weakness of the rage

To feel the sadness in the greed

To feel empathy for those in need

In a world of constant trials

When little seems quite right

Find the light

The Nuke

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

The Nuke

 

Vladimir Putin has the nuke

And he’s not afraid to flaunt it

Nuclear subs off the Florida coast

You’ve got war if you want it

 

Such recklessness is rare indeed

Deserves a stern rebuke

A world in danger doesn’t need

A taunting of the nuke

 

He’s willing to destroy the earth

In all his evil glory

To give his evil empire birth

A terrifying story

 

A million lives means nothing

To a man who believes he’s God

He hears a thousand angels sing

He expects us to applaud

 

The world must stand as one against

The threat of annihilation

Cease this path of gross offense

We plead for your salvation

 

Words Fail

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Words Fail

 

I don’t know what you learned in school

The Civil War was right against wrong

It was not a primeval dual

The Bill of Rights is not a song

We oppose a one-man rule

We’re better off if we get along

Fascism is never cool

In unity we are strong

 

When he says he will imprison those

Who oppose his infallible will

That is how fascism rose

It is clearly with us still

Everyone with an open mind knows

As our measure of outrage fills

The threat to our republic grows

They are closing for the kill

 

We will not give up the fight

We will stand on solid ground

We will keep our foes in sight

We will keep our friends around

We will bind our cause to the light

Until at last we’re homeward bound

The Dead of Nuseirat

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ISRAEL AT WAR

The Dead of Nuseirat

 

Two hundred dead in Nuseirat

Four Israeli hostages freed

Were they all Hamas terrorists?

Women and children?

Nits make fleas?

 

What are we to believe?

What is the cost of rescue

If we lose our immortal soul?

Two hundred dead in Nuseirat

The justification leaves me cold

 

I know Hamas is guilty

They should never be forgiven

They set this train in motion

They must be made accountable

But Hamas is not Gaza

Gaza is not Hamas

You push them into a corner

And blame them for being trapped

 

The innocent of Nuseirat

Did not deserve to die

 

Kenyans in Haiti

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Kenyans in Haiti

 

Haiti descends into madness

A lawless, chaotic society

A society of thugs and criminals

Gangs and gangsters

Roaming the hungry streets

Marking the neighborhood territories

Like wild dogs on the prowl

Guns are more plentiful than drinking water

Thousands killed and thousands displaced

A self-imposed genocide

 

The Spanish, French and Americans failed

Now Kenya leads a multinational force

A force of two thousand five hundred police

Charged with dismantling the rule of anarchy

Charged with imposing order on chaos

Charged with displacing the mob

 

As Henry said to Eleanor:

Do you think there’s any chance of it?

Eleanor only laughed *

 

The world shares the failure in Haiti

The world must take responsibility

 

* From The Lion in Winter

Nobody Cares

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Nobody Cares

 

They took your train for a ride

Maybe they thought it was fun

In jest they took your side

You called them to act on January 6

Your mobsters crashed the capitol

Carrying flags of white supremacy

You told them you’d lead them

But you weren’t there

You hemmed and hawed

But nobody cares

 

They did your bidding and you ran away

They paid for what they did that day

 

Four years later you called again

You called for riots in the streets

You called for mass demonstrations

You warned them not to indict

You warned them not to convict

There would be dire consequences

The likes of which we’ve never seen

But there were no demonstrations

They were no riots in the streets

There was hardly a whimper

Outside the bombast echo chamber

Of feigned outrage and real fake news

In the real world they stopped and stared

But no one seemed to care

 

You promised us a riot

You promised violent upheaval

You promised a war of retribution

But you’re not the one who pays

You’re not the one who sacrifices

You won’t even go to jail

You whine and whimper It’s not fair!

It turns out nobody cares