Gender Gap

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Gender Gap

 

What is it about men?

Do we not believe our eyes?

We see clearly where we’ve been

All reason would belie

We should not go back again

When we know the reasons why

 

And yet here we stand

It is far too close to call

A woman against a man

The woman standing tall

The man without a plan

Except to build his wall

 

It is the Us against the Them

How else can we explain?

A flower against a stem

A mind without a brain

Our nation we’d condemn

To a horror filled refrain

 

Will we stumble into night

Or awaken in the day?

Will we finally make it right

Or watch it all wash away?

Will we keep it in our sight?

Hold on come what may

 

Back to Ashes

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

Back to Ashes

 

The Phoenix in mythical lore

Rose from the ashes of destruction

Soon as the warming takes its toll

She will return to the ashes once more

 

One hundred days at one hundred degrees

An average low of eighty-seven

A constant wave of human suffering

Brought to bear by the earth’s disease

 

Go north the old folks tell their young

Where the warming has some mercy

North where the ice and snow will melt

Not here where our song is sung

 

Don’t wait for the matter will get worse

The streets will feel like the sun

When the grid falters and fails to run

It will strike like the final curse

 

Back to the ashes is our sad fate

No gods of redemption can save us

We’ve built our city of sand and dust

Our understanding came too late

 

(The temperature in Phoenix AZ ran over 110

degrees Fahrenheit for 80 days in 2024.)

 

Between Helene & Milton

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

Between Helene & Milton

 

Between Milton and Helene

As we await the latest word

The most powerful we have seen

What horrors we have heard

 

Did you heed the latest warning?

Did you board it up and leave?

Will you hunker down ‘til morning?

Will your friends and family grieve?

 

We have heard it all before

The largest storm in history

Like the victims in a war

No longer a great mystery

 

Are you still living in denial?

Make a wish it isn’t so

Take an inch and give a mile

Every day the crisis grows

 

Can we ever make amends

For the decisions that we made

Is this how the story ends

With a bang and slowly fade

 

(My heart goes out to all those in

the path of Helene and Milton.)

 

Allez Macron!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Allez Macron!

 

Amidst the paralyzing indifference

As the horrors spread in the Middle East

From Gaza to the West Bank to Lebanon

At the hands of the Israeli beast

 

One man rises in the heart of Europe

To say what must be said

We cannot stand by indifferently

Until ten thousand more are dead

 

He proposes a weapons embargo

To stop the spread of this bloody war

If the Israelis continue on this path

It will soon be at our door

 

Netanyahu is reeling desperately

All he wants is blood and more

It will take a unity of nations

To end this endless war

 

We all must be accountable

For the horrors he has unleashed

What began as just retribution

Has become a bloodletting feast

The Trump Method

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

The Trump Method

 

The Trump method is simple

He doesn’t tell a common lie

He doesn’t engage in fabrication

He lets the simple truth fly by

By death he means salvation

He gives the opposite of truth a try

 

Elon Musk is Donald’s minion

Though he was late to get on board

He never offers an opinion

That doesn’t blend with Trump’s discord

 

What he says about those others

He really means about his own

When he says the crowd is huge

He might be standing all alone

 

When he says he’ll save democracy

You should know he means to end it

What he loves is pure autocracy

The republic? He won’t defend it

 

It is all about the big lie

The bigger it is the better

He likes his ham on rye

Don’t say why, it might upset her

 

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!