Friday, June 26, 2020

Family Circle

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES



Family Circle

Doing the right thing
Staying at home
Keeping our distance
Not taking chances
Staying safe the way we should
But I wonder now and then
How everyone is doing
Not in the abstract
Not on the phone
Not on social media
But up close and personal

My folks left some time ago
Never had to face this test
But the rest of us are near
Still living around here
My brothers and sisters
Nephews and nieces
Love them all to pieces
Babies being born
Some folks moving on
Kids growing up
Living lives without us

I miss the family circle
I miss looking them in the eye
Each and every one
Hearing what they have to say
Seeing what they really mean
I miss their tender love and caring
Moments that we shared
I miss the lazy days we spent
Shooting the evening breeze
Singing songs and telling stories

I know those days will come again
At least I hope they will
And we will cherish them all the more
For the gaping hole they fill

(for Ethan on his birthday)

Thursday, June 25, 2020

Lynch's Irish Pub (Fifteen Ladies)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES



Lynch’s Irish Pub

Fifteen ladies went to celebrate
A night at the pub
A memorable date
A night to remember
As cold as fate

Fifteen ladies all sick today
No masks did they wear
Needless to say
The virus did not care

Now the Irish Pub is gone
They had to close it down
Because ladies should not die
For a night out on the town

The ladies didn’t die you say
They got sick and some recovered
But each went home to someone
And they infected one another

The truth is we’ll never know
How many lives were lost
We know it was not worth it
No matter what the cost


Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Hold the Line

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GEORGE FLOYD SERIES



Hold the Line

We’ve been pushing so long
Our bones are starting to push back
Decades of resistance
Centuries of struggle
Truth be told
Millennia of pressure
On our worried minds
Hold the line

So tired my eyes close by themselves
My back aches my legs pulsate
My brain screams at the endless plight
Every step reminds me
Of the struggle ahead
And the struggle behind
Hold the line

Work until your fingers bleed
Talk until you fold
March until the sun rises
Watch until you’re blind
Hold the line

Nothing worth achieving
Was ever accomplished with less
Than everything you’ve got
This is our time
Hold the line

No matter how many times
They beat us down
And trample us
No matter how times
They batter us
No matter how many times
They take our money our homes
Our peace of mind
Hold the line

We will prevail
We will take what is rightly ours
We will right forever wrongs
We will stand our ground
We will not fall behind
Hold the line

For all who came before us
And all who will follow
For our children
For posterity
For all that we hold dear
For peace and prosperity
For justice and equality
For the good and the kind
Hold the line

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Mount Rushmore

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  GEORGE FLOYD SERIES


Rushmore

 

While we’re taking down statues

Of confederate heroes

Consider the abomination carved

Into the sacred mountains

Of North Dakota

 

Think of them what you will

Slaveholders or emancipators

Conservationists or buffalo killers

Racists or liberators

The great white fathers

Do not belong in the Black Hills

Sacred ground to the Lakota nation

 

Crazy Horse belongs in the Black Hills *

Sitting Bull belongs in the Black Hills

Black Elk belongs in the Black Hills

Big Foot belongs in the Black Hills

 

Take down the defenders of slavery

Deglorify the traders of slaves

Break down the great white commanders

In the home of the free and the brave

 

Replace the symbols of white supremacy

With the defenders of equality

Replace the champions of treason

With the proud guardians of reason

 

We are what we deify

We are what our books embrace

When our history teaches lies

Our entire nation is disgraced

 

* (Crazy Horse Monument is just down

the road from Mount Rushmore; its

inscription reads: “My land is where

my people lie buried.”)

Monday, June 22, 2020

To Mask or Not to Mask

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES



To Mask or Not to Mask

To mask or not to mask
That is the question
Whether it is nobler to display loyalty
To the man in power
Or enhance survival of the species
To mask yet ask no questions
Demand no answers
To let the virus work its darkness
Or stand in opposition
And by resisting perchance to stop him
Ah there’s the rub
What further damage might
Our species do if allowed
To spread and thrive?
The species or the planet?
Will not destruction of the former
Spare the latter?
I shall despair
Paralyzed in procrastination
Frozen with indecisiveness
I wait and wait again:
To mask or not to mask
That is the question

Sunday, June 21, 2020

The Real World

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  CORONAVIRUS SERIES



The Real World

We leave behind our virtuality
Just as we all prayed
We must wonder where we stand
In the brutal light of day

We have made a great investment
In the realm beyond our view
Must we question all our musings now
What is false and what is true?

We have formed new attachments
And we must wonder if they will hold
Have we made too many commitments?
Were we restrained or were we bold?

The real world awaits us
It never really went away
We lower expectations
And hope the world will stay


Saturday, June 20, 2020

Twisted History: A Legacy of Shame

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  GEORGE FLOYD SERIES



Twisted History

400 years since slaves arrived on the American shore
220 years since the birth of the Underground Railroad
200 years since the Missouri Compromise
163 years since Dred Scott
159 years since the inception of the Civil War
157 years since the Emancipation Proclamation
156 years since the burning of Atlanta
155 years since the 13th Amendment
154 years since Lincoln’s assassination
154 years since the birth of the KKK
153 years since reconstruction
150 years since the dawn of Jim Crow
124 years since Plessy V. Ferguson
99 years since the Tulsa Massacre
83 years since the death of Bessie Smith
81 years since Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit
75 years since the Civil Rights Act
65 years since the lynching of Emmett Till
56 years since Nina Simone’s Mississippi Goddamn
55 years since the killing of Malcolm X
55 years since the summer of Watts
52 years since the assassination of the King
51 years since the Hampton and Clark
29 years since Rodney King
7 years since the nullification of Voting Rights
7 years since Black Lives Matter
6 years since the murder of Michael Brown
6 years since Tamar Rice and Eric Garner
5 years since Jamar Clark
4 years since Philando Castile
3 years since Charlottesville
2 years since Botham Jean
1 year since Danquirs Franklin
4 months since Ahmaud Arberi
3 months since Breonna Taylor
2 months since Sean Reed
1 month since George Floyd
1 day since Rayshard Brooks

After 400 years of twisted history
False promises exploitation
And brutality
Atlanta burns
America wonders why

Friday, June 19, 2020

The Band Plays On

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  CORONAVIRUS SERIES



The Band Plays On

The death toll rises
As the band plays on
Fire fills the western sky
And the band plays on
Old folks keep on dying
While the band plays on
Loved ones are crying
As the band plays on

Our hospitals are overrun
Our cities smell of rot
A shadow lurks o’er the sun
Our happiness is not

We live in sorrow day and night
The horror has no end
We hide our eyes from dreadful sights
As death becomes our friend

Blindness is appalling
When it is willful ignorance
When it harms the ones we love
And offends intelligence

The death toll keeps rising
Our faith is almost gone
Our sympathy is fading
While the band plays on


Thursday, June 18, 2020

Acceleration

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES



Acceleration

The virus finds its mark
Zeroes in
Attacks like a pack of wolves
Spreads like a murder of crows
In flight
Accelerates like a diving bird
Of prey

We thought it would go away
Returned to our ordinary lives
Locked our old folks in their place
Stopped tracking the daily toll
Placed our fate in the hands of god
Rolled the dice and played the game

We are where we are because
We wanted to be free
We are where we are because
We refused to be controlled
By some incomprehensible enemy
Because our leader went to sleep
Dismissed all the guards and
Told us not to worry
Because we are Americans
Always in a hurry

The virus doesn’t care
What we say or what we think
The acceleration is happening
As we stand on the brink


Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Return of COVID-19

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES



Return of COVID-19

Like a grade B movie from the fifties
A horror flick no one wanted
And no one flocked to see
Back by unpopular demand
And stubborn insistence
It’s COVID-19

Killer of the elderly
The frail and the infirm
With a penchant for darker skin
It strikes by day strikes by night
Travels by air and evades sight
It claimed 100 thousand lives
And still got no respect
So it returns in form
To claim 100 thousand more

No one can say
We did not have fair warning
It comes like a whisper
To lead us in mourning

We know what to do
But we’ve lost our patience
We’ve lost our will and common sense

So let the old folks go
Let the weak fall down
Let the young and strong
Seek solid ground

Contrary to wishful opinion
It did not disappear in warmer weather
It did not thrive on media attention
It survived without intention
Like a shadow in the dark
It worked its deadly spell
On frail and unsuspecting prey
One by one the weak ones fell
Gone from view it now returns
To ravage us in light of day
And we are left with little to do
But bow our heads and pray


Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Random Facts (A Roll of the Dice)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES



Random Facts

If you live in Taiwan or Sweden
South Korea or New Zealand
If you’re Asian or Caucasian
If you’re healthy and strong
If you live in a house
If you work at home
If your income is secure
If you have little stress
If you’re under fifty-five
Without conditions underlying
Then you’re the lucky one
The odds are with you
Throw the dice

If you live in Italy or Brazil
New York or Great Britain
If you’re black or brown
If you live in the barrio or favela
If you reside in the projects
If you lack fresh vegetables and fruit
If you’re over sixty-five
If you take medications
For conditions underlying
Then your luck is running thin
Let the prayers begin
If you’re feeling a little sick
You’ve drawn the short end of the stick

Are you lucky my friend?
Depends
On who what and where you are

One roll you survive
Another
You don’t get out alive

Random chance random facts
First second or final act

Roll the dice and let us see
What alas your fate will be

Monday, June 15, 2020

Confluence of Catastrophe

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES



Confluence of Catastrophe

Wildfires in the west
Hurricanes in the east
In the midst of a great pandemic
The reaper is preparing a feast

We are walking in our sleep
Too dazed to think ahead
We know we should get ready
But we’d rather play games instead

Is there anybody out there
Who knows what we should do?
Is there anybody out there
Who can help us see it through?

We are a ship without a captain
Like a rig without a wheel
We are adrift in open waters
And we don’t know what to feel

We are waiting for a hero
To shake us from our gloom
If we do not soon awaken
We are sure to meet our doom


Sunday, June 14, 2020

Back to School

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES



Back to School

Can I go back to school today
Me and Johnny want to play
I promise to do my homework
And the president says it’s okay

You cannot go back to school today
You cannot go back tomorrow
There are just too many questions
Better safe than sorrow

But I have to go back to school today
I have to see my friends
Johnny’s mom is letting him go
Cause the world is on the mend

You cannot go back to school today
But you must go back soon I know
We can’t keep you home forever
But at least we can take it slow

We’ll pray for little Johnny
As we pray for all the kids
I fear you are paying the price
For the terrible things we did

Saturday, June 13, 2020

Willful Ignorance (for James Baldwin)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  GEORGE FLOYD SERIES



Willful Ignorance

The words of a great man
From a former generation
Haunt the white man’s world
With the weight of eternal history
And the depth of eternal knowledge

“If you can overcome the curtain of my color”
Then we can live in peace
If not we will be at war perpetually
A war like most wars that no one can win

“I want exactly what you want”
I want to be left alone
I want to walk the streets of America
Without fear of never returning
To my home
I want my children and theirs
To grow up in safe neighborhoods
Where kindness and wisdom thrive
Where hatred and brutality fail

“You will listen or you will perish”
And we will perish together
Like pigs in a pen
Like fools in a pool of madness
We are human beings
We are not bison or beavers
That you can hunt into extinction
We are not leaving
This is our land as much as yours
You brought us here as slaves
But we are free
We have won our freedom
And we will not yield equality
We are here to stay
Make peace with that reality

(respectfully for James Baldwin)

Friday, June 12, 2020

Killing Doctors in Moscow

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES



Killing Doctors in Moscow

We show mercy to the terminally ill
We shoot animals in pain
They let doctors die in Russia
For telling the truth in vain

A doctor takes a solemn oath
To treat the sick and do no harm
When you witness dangerous situations
You have a duty to raise alarm

But the Kremlin thinks its surrounded
By a bubble of immunity
If they keep it all a secret
It does not hit your own community

It doesn’t matter where you’re from
Or where you practice your occupation
You deserve respect and common decency
From the leaders of your nation

So cry now for Moscow
And let your tears flow
The image of a proud nation
Falls to the one we know

Thursday, June 11, 2020

It Ain't Over

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES



It Ain’t Over

You can’t end a war with a fantasy
You can’t tell a virus to cease and desist
You can’t halt death with a snap of your fingers
You can’t stop a storm with a wish

Did you think it would all disappear
If you said there was nothing to fear?
Did you believe it would go away
If you commanded it not to stay?

When we were bright eyed kids
And the world was ours to declare
We could pick up our marbles and leave
If we thought the game wasn’t fair

But those days are forever gone
We now face the fate we’ve earned
When we pour fuel on a fire
We know we will get burned

You can’t stop the sun from rising
You can’t stop the sea with a prayer
You can’t stop an eagle from flying
You can’t stop disease with a dare

It ain’t over till it’s over


Wednesday, June 10, 2020

New York Breakdown

RANDOM POETRY HOUR: GEORGE FLOYD SERIES



New York Breakdown

Brutality on the streets of New York
Betrayal of the public trust
The shining beacon on an island
Has gone from boom to bust

New York we love you
But you’re beating us down *
The city of enlightenment
City of dreams now broken
And scattered into a million
Little pieces on bloodied ground

When the pandemic smashed into you
Like the first wave of a tsunami
We turned to you in admiration
We looked to you for salvation
We held you up for inspiration
We felt for you and prayed

Now you revert to political form
And blame the beaten
For being bruised

New York we love you
But you will be forsaken
After centuries of injustice
It’s time to awaken

[* LCD Soundsystem:
New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down]