Tony Soprano

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Tony Soprano

 

Tony Soprano was a solid man

For a mob boss

So he smacked a few guys

They was asking for it

So he whacked a few guys

They deserved to be whacked

 

I get it

 

Tony Soprano was an engaging character

He didn’t take crap from nobody

He valued loyalty above all

He liked a rigged game

As long as Tony got his share

They all got along fine

But if somebody steps out of line

All bets are off

You might get smacked

You might get whacked

 

I get it

 

What I don’t get and never will

Is why so many of us

On the bottom of the mob ladder

The suckers and losers

The ones who get whacked

Why so many of us still want

Tony Soprano for president

 

October 7th

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GAZA WAR

October 7^th

 

One year ago this very day

A monster was unleashed

Against a freedom loving people

Ending hope of a lasting peace

 

In the shadow of those darkest hours

The blood of innocence was spilled

Those who rose against the powers

By the hundreds were cruelly killed

 

There was an evil in the air

There was a darkness of the soul

The good at heart no longer cared

They lost what made them whole

 

It seems the world has gone to hell

In a war that has no end

We’ve fallen under an evil spell

That in truth we can’t defend

 

We must find another better way

This kind of horror cannot go on

We must temper all this zealous hate

The way of war is always wrong

 

The Panderer

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP

The Panderer

 

He’ll give you what you want

He will promise anything

If you promise him your vote

He will make the angels sing

 

No taxes on the wealthy

No taxes on the poor

No taxes on the middle class

Free meals at your door

 

He’ll bring peace to Ukraine

An independent Palestine

He’ll turn crazy into sane

He’ll turn water into wine

 

If you ask him how he’ll do it

He’ll wave his hands in the air

He will shoot an arrow through it

Then he’ll fix his eyes and stare

 

There is nothing I can’t do

When I’m the king of all that be

Everyone will know it’s true

When I part the great Red Sea

 

Russian Blood on Ukrainian Soil

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE WAR

Russian Blood

 

Hundreds of soldiers die each day

In a war for Ukrainian land

Ukrainians hunker down and pray

As they face their final stand

 

It is a war for pride and greed

It sadly makes your blood boil

Our sense of justice bleeds

Russian blood on Ukrainian soil

 

Three years of bloody killing

Of sending soldiers lost to die

Three years and we’re still willing

While all Russia wonders why

 

The blood is on his filthy hands

A man without a heart

All to boost the Russian brand

To tear the world apart

 

How many lives must pay the cost?

How long will your people toil?

Before you know your cause is lost

Russian blood on Ukrainian soil

 

Too Much

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: DONALD TRUMP

Too Much

 

We used to wonder why they showed him so much

Now we wonder why they show him so little

The man is desperately out of touch

Like a hoedown without a fiddle

 

If it wasn’t so critical he’d have my pity

He is rapidly losing his mind

In every town and every city

His simple reasoning is hard to find

 

The world is balanced on the edge of a cliff

It is barreling swiftly out of control

We dare not ask what would happen if

It was up to a man who is not whole

 

We have watched him unravel over the years

We have seen the decline of his brain

We must acknowledge our darkest fears

Before our nation goes down the drain

 

We know it will happen to the best of us

It can be hard for us to accept

But the time will come as come it must

To understand he’s beyond his depth

 

Only in America

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Only in America

 

Only in America can a candidate

Lose by some three million votes

Yet emerge victorious in an

Electoral landslide

 

Other nations hold sham elections

Stuffing the ballot box

Altering the count

Arresting the opposition

Shutting down the free press

Suppressing the vote

Anything to ensure the desired result

 

But only in America do we bend

The results by giving voters in

Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan

The weight of a hundred Californians

 

Only in America do we claim

Democratic virtue while practicing

The science of 18^th century

Compromise

 

El Gran Dictador!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Nicaragua: El Gran Dictador

 

He promised prosperity for all

He delivered a police state

His adversaries are in jail

He has stolen their land

He has taken their citizenship

He has sent them into exile

 

Yet his people live in poverty

The poor and the elderly

And condemned to the streets

The physically and mentally challenged

Have lost all support

The government controls everything

From religious institutions

To social gatherings

They control the military

They control the police

They control the judiciary

They control the media

The economy is crippled

His servants are corrupt

 

Once they were revolutionaries

They fought against Samoza

Now they become what they opposed

The oppressors

The abusers

The lost

 

Ortega is the new Samoza

The great dictator

El Gran Dictador

Project 2025 Emergency

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Project 2025 Emergency

 

Project 2025: A program for autocracy

Among its many evil schemes

The destruction of democracy

The corruption of our justice system

A dismantling of bureaucracy

 

Under Project 2025

Emergency management falls to the states

So when a hurricane slams Florida

The government response:  Suffer your fate!

 

When twisters rip through the Midwest states

And the victims are feeling alone

The government will shake its head

Good luck, you’re on your own!

 

When fires burn through western lands

And the people plead for aid

The government will turn its back

And your hopes will slowly fade

 

When the lights go out in Texas

And they don’t know what to do

Washington will have no ears

Sometimes you’re bound to lose

 

That’s the way it’s going to be

If the rightwing has its way

You may like it in the short term

But soon you'll rue the day

 

Sedition in Hong Kong

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Sedition in Hong Kong

 

Sedition in Hong Kong

Is daring to act like a journalist

 

Sedition in Hong Kong

Is daring to criticize Beijing

 

Once there was hope of freedom

Freedom of speech

Freedom of assembly

Freedom to march the streets in protest

Freedom to publish your views

 

That hope was brutally attacked

By the officers of oppression

 

Now they jail journalists

Now they serve warning to all

Who would ever dare oppose them

 

They don’t know the history of resistance

They don’t know the power of the people

It may take a decade of resistance

It may take a century of defiance

But the people will not forget

The people will not give in

They will find a way forward

They will find the path to freedom

They will march toward democracy

Step by step, year after year

Decade after decade

Until at last they prevail

 

(Stand News editors Chung Pui-kuen

and Patrick Lam sentence to prison.)

 

The Choice (Abortion)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

The Choice (Abortion)

 

He engineered the change

That struck down Roe V. Wade

But never mind he didn’t mean it

He’s all pro-choice today

 

He sang a different tune

Not so very long ago

He must have lived on the moon

Please say it isn’t so

 

The choice goes to the states

On that (he says) we all agreed

But hold on here and wait!

That no one wants or needs

 

Every woman should have a right

No matter where she lives

That’s like turning day to night

It’s not your right to give

 

You may say you’re not to blame

But we all know that it’s true

The court did it in your name

So the blame must fall on you

 

No Words

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

No Words

 

Masha has no father, no family

She has no words for Vladimir Putin

She is from Kiev

To be from Kiev is to know sorrow

The sorrow of losing loved ones

The sorrow of losing one’s home

The sorrow of losing a life

She has no words for Vladimir Putin

She has only hatred

 

The war drags on like a stubborn storm

Like an illness that won’t go away

An aching throbbing persistent pain

A disease of the heart and soul

Like a never-ending rain

 

We have no words for Vladimir Putin

He has no heart for us

He has no care for human suffering

He has only his ambition

He feels nothing for anyone but his self

 

If the world is to find a way forward

We must move forward without him

He is a growth that must be removed

He is the heart of all our sorrow

We have no more words for him

Only hate

Only pity

Only sorrow

Corporate Healthcare

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

Corporate Healthcare

 

Corporations have a place

(at the moment I’m not sure where)

But it is certain on its face

That it’s not in medical care

 

When profit is your motive

You are bound to come up short

Your only interest then becomes

Staying out of court

 

How many people die

Because they didn’t have the care

The nurses and the doctors

To protect the corporate share?

 

Let them dominate the markets

Let them buy the corporate chains

But when it comes to hospitals

The profit motive is insane

 

The people know by instinct

When we need a helping hand

The last place we would turn to

Wears a corporate brand

 

As Election Day Draws Near

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Election Day (Clear Choice)

 

If you believe in a right to choose

The choice is absolutely clear

Down the line your vote is blue

As election day draws near

 

If you believe in a free Ukraine

An untethered Putin you should fear

The truth is absolutely plain

As election day draws near

 

If you want to end the Gaza war

If the genocide draws your tears

There’s only one way to close that door

As election day draws near

 

If you favor our democracy

If the founders you hold dear

If you don’t want an autocracy

The choice is very clear

 

If you believe in labor rights

Your choice is very clear

Who stands beside you in your fight

As election day draws near?

 

If you fear the planet’s warming

As the phony naysayers jeer

If you find the giant storms alarming

Your choice is beyond clear

 

Come November 5: Vote!

 

Stop the War!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ISRAEL AT WAR

Stop the War (Letter to Biden)

 

Mister President

You are still the president

As Netanyahu expands the war

With his attacks on Lebanon

With his threats against Iran

You are the only one on earth

Who can stop this madness

You have the key to Israeli power

Though you have sworn not to use it

Netanyahu is taunting you

Daring you to act

He does not believe you will do it

He’s got you in a vice

How long can this go on?

How far can he push you?

In the name of peace

In the name of justice

Withhold funding for Israel

Withhold weapons and military aid

Do it in small increments

Then larger and larger still

Secure the remaining hostages

Secure the Israeli people

Secure Palestine a future

By removing Netanyahu from

His place of ultimate power

You will pave the road to peace

It will take political courage

It will involve risk

But there is no other way

 

The Crypto King

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP DAZE

The Crypto King

 

The con of all cons

Like an Edsel with wings

Let’s hear it for the Don!

The crypto currency king

 

He sold us the golden shoes

Trading cards and magic rings

How can we ever lose?

He’s the crypto currency king

 

He’s lost more money than anyone

He’s run a thousand stings

He’ll pass it all to his elder son

The new crypto currency king

 

Crypto is the king of cons

It’s a currency for crooks

Let’s give it up to the Don

And open up his books

 

He’ll take your hard-earned cash

He’ll do a dance and sing

He’ll put the proceeds in his stash

He’s the crypto currency king

(Trump starts a new crypto currency.)

 

The Price of Freedom

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

The Price of Freedom

 

In El Salvador they have no freedom

They traded it for order

Not long ago gangs ruled the streets

Drugs and human trafficking

Freely crossed the border

Murder rape and mayhem

The people fled in droves

Escaping a state of anarchy

To where nobody knows

 

They elected a hardnosed autocrat

On a promise of establishing law

He eliminated the opposition

Replaced justices with his own

He cracked down on honest journalists

Denied the right to protest

Free speech and the right to assemble

Imprisoned gangs without a trial

 

Nayib Bukele is no friend to democracy

But he kept his solemn promise

A land of chaos became a land of order

People are safer within their border

They may live without fear

 

There is a lesson and a warning here

For all democratic nations

When the people are not safe

When the police are on the take

When the government is corrupt

When there is no sense of hope

The people will sacrifice their freedom

They will abandon democracy

And democracy, once sacrificed

Is not easily returned

 

Casualties of Culture

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GUN CONTROL

Casualties of Culture

 

How many dead?  How many wounded?

That’s all we want to know

How many dead?  How many wounded?

Our sense of helplessness grows

 

What if you knew them?

What if your child was dead?

Would you still say the pledge?

Would you still vote red?

 

We kill more people than any other nation

With our guns and our right to arms

We shed more tears for the innocent

With our guns we do more harm

 

We have been here many times before

And we have rarely taken action

For the countless victims of gun violence

There is no satisfaction

 

They wring their hands and say their prayers

They will hang their heads in mourning

They will act as if they really care

We will let that serve as warning

 

Nothing ever changes unless we vote

For change.