RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
Mutation
Just when we thought
It would come to an end
Here comes a mutation
And the message it sends
Lock down your business
Get back in you homes
Two Horsemen are riding
Begin a new tome
Will there come three?
Will there come four?
The people are frightened
Scared to the core
Is there no mercy?
No help from above?
Have we run out of chances?
Is there no love?
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR
Song of Solstice (Winter is Here)
The days become short and the nights so long
Our hearts are ringing with the sound of song
A northern chill has invaded the air
A winter darkness sweeps us in its lair
We have no true longing to venture out
Deep winter shadows fill our minds with doubt
Frost covers the ground and the air grows still
The marrow of bones senses winter’s chill
The season of death descends upon all
The heavens in mourning after the fall
We burrow ourselves inside our warm homes
And give thanks to all we are not alone
We endure this winter of discontent
And contemplate where our adventures went
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
Joy
Let all hardship and worry go
Today is a day of joy
It is a time of winter wonder
For children and their toys
Let go the lingering discontent
Let go the tears of rage
Forgive betrayal and transgression
On vengeance turn the page
Tonight there is no sorrow
There is no fear or dread
There is only cheer and happiness
As we lay our heads to rest
Tomorrow we awaken
To a world of many wonders
A world where joy and faith
Cast misery asunder
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
Hunger in America
Hunger in America has always been
Denial is the American way
Food insecurity is a euphemism
Like eccentricity for madness
It does not describe the truth
The way a stomach tightens
In the throes of hunger
It does not describe
How the mind fogs over
And all thought centers on food
It does not describe
The shame of mothers and fathers
When a child goes hungry at night
Hunger is like a drug addiction
It gnaws at your humanity
It drags you to the gutter
It makes you plead
Like a common beggar
It transforms you into someone
You no longer know
So don’t belittle it with euphemism
Its name is hunger
It is one step short of starvation
It is a time of desperate yearning
(an estimated 35 to 50 million Americans
will experience hunger during the pandemic)
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: NATIVE JUSTICE
Free Peltier
Now that you’ve broken new ground
Appointing a native American
To the council of the Great White Fathers *
An injustice remains to be righted
The last prisoner of the Indian wars
The last heart buried at Wounded Knee **
A man of Lakota blood and pride
Remains in a white man’s cage
Suffering the ravages of disease
Humbled by the indignities of age
Leonard Peltier cries out once again ***
With what was a young man’s rage:
Let me walk once more on native soil
Let me stand once more free and brave
Admit no wrong if it pleases you
Show compassion if you will
But let me not spend another minute
For the men I did not kill
(* Deb Haaland was nominated to serve
in the Biden cabinet. ** The Siege of
Wounded Knee 1973. *** Imprisoned
in 1977, he is 76 today.)
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
Christmas is Canceled
All the children are bundled
In their bright Christmas best
From the wise in the east
To the jolly Midwest
From the churches down south
To the folks in their vests
We’re all ready to celebrate
A holiday fest
But the man in the kingdom
Whom they call the premier
Interrupts the good tidings
And all the great cheer
He looks straight in the camera
And says with a tear
Haven’t you heard?
Christmas is canceled this year
My oh my what a fright
What a terrible thing
The children can’t play
And the angels can’t sing
Our Santa’s can’t jolly
And the bells dare not ring
There are no more elves
No flying reindeer
Christmas is canceled this year
But out of the darkness
And into the light
The spirit of Christmas
Comes into sight
It soothes all the children
And says do not fear
Christmas is in the heart this year
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
Intentional Negligence
To all who lost loved ones to Covid-19
Does it help to know their intentions
To infect the young and healthy
To encourage the viral spread
To achieve herd immunity
To secure a second term?
Does it help to know they didn’t mean
To kill the vulnerable and elderly?
Does it help to know they didn’t care?
Whether intentional or folly
They did their best to spread it around
To infect as many as they could
To keep the markets thriving
Until Election Day
After that who knows?
It no longer mattered
It was all about the man on top
The man in the golden mirror
The man with a deep psychological need
To best the best and stay in power
The man of every hour
No matter how many died
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS
From Moscow with Love
You poisoned Navalny
We tracked the killer down
You hacked our institutions
We spread the word around
You delivered a puppet president
Whom you ruled from up above
Now you bid us a fond farewell
From Moscow with love
You have many of our secrets
And access to the rest
Someday when it matters
You’ll deliver us a test
How much will we offer
When push comes to shove
Chechnya and Ukraine?
From Moscow with love
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
Without Fear
Should I walk through this life
Without fear without worry
Should I walk a long road
Never doubt never hurry
In these trying times I’ve learned
Without fear I would not survive
Without a healthy dose of doubt
I would likely not be alive
Fear leads me away from danger
Doubt keeps me safe at home
It is a time that values caution
It is not a time to roam
So let the singer praise the valiant
Who bravely cast their lives away
I will praise the cautious ones
Who bravely choose to stay
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL JUSTICE
The Execution of Ruhollah Zam
The execution of Ruhollah Zam
Lands a death blow to Iran
In its hopes to restore relations
Between Tehran and western nations
Whatever hopes we might have had
Have gone to worse from bad
Iran must walk a lonely road
For violating a moral code
Journalists thou shall not kill
For if you do good nations will
Abandon you on every path
Gifting you our righteous wrath
We must assure a price to pay
To advance there is no other way
If you defy most basic rights
We must oppose you in this fight
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
Corona Christmas
When I was young and brave
I dreamed of being a troubadour
A writer of dreams
A man of letters
A poet and master creator
A man of substance and means
I rode that dream to faraway lands
Where art and artists reigned
Where everything was novel
Where everyone had character
Where no one had plans
Beyond tomorrow
I remember Christmas
Far from my home
No family no friends
On Christmas alone
The dream slowly faded
Like the end of a story
I grabbed my moment
and then it was gone
I awakened surrounded
by family and friends
But I wonder at times
When did the dream end?
I remember Christmas
So far from my home
No friends no family
On Christmas alone
Now I’m back in a dream
Locked down in my home
No family no friends
On Christmas alone
(NYC circa 1975)
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
The Silence
A Sunday walk in the park
Fallen leaves adorn the earth
A mere whisper of wind
Accentuates the void
The absence of sound
A muffling of noise
The last geese have gone
Predators are in hiding
A distant drone of transport
More distant and subdued
And the workers who once toiled
Without rest or respite
Now sit in their quiet homes
Together and alone
The world is on sabbatical
The sound of labor is on hold
No sounds of celebration
No children playing
No singers or musicians
No dancers dancing
To raise our sullen spirits
No chatter of sidewalk cafes
No sudden bursts to amaze
The joy and sorrow of silence
Has invaded our daily lives
To soothe our senses
To send our thoughts in flight
As if to prepare us
For a long dark winter
Night
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
The
Last Man
A young soldier asked congress
A question that ached
Echoed in the chambers
Of a war we would forsake
Who will be the last man
To die for a mistake?
Fifty years later we don our masks
As we await our turn to finally ask
Who will be the last to die
For this president’s lie?
We should know by now
What we should have known then
Wars are started by greedy men
Who wish to control the planet
Every stone every garden every
Mountain of granite
From a line in the sand
To the Gulf of Ton-kin
Erased from the history of
A war we could not win
LBJ is forgiven now
But the question will remain
Like a mourning mother’s cry
Like an indelible stain
How many soldiers died
For a president’s lie?
That brings us back to today
And the question is why
Why did so many die
For a presidential lie?
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
Locked Out
In Paris London and Berlin
They fight a virus not a sin
They look at us with woeful doubt
They’re locked in and we’re locked out
From Manhattan to LA
We let the virus have its way
Now we let it run its course
As we bow our heads and pray
We are at least a world apart
We have known it from the start
They are governed by the mind
We are governed by the heart
In Paris London and Berlin
It’s a war they know they’ll win
From Manhattan to LA
We’re locked out and looking in
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: SOCIAL JUSTICE
Juxtaposition
The Dow soars to an all-time high
While the poor que up in food lines
The needy live in humility
But the wealthy are feeling just fine
A sparkling day in the lush green valley
The harvest has turned into wine
Farmworkers are counting their pennies
Rich farmers are doing just fine
In a land of great wealth and plenty
It seems futile for me to opine
The homeless are suffering greatly
While the privileged are doing just fine
The rich grow richer the poor stay poor
I know it’s a timeless cliché
But the saying never rang truer
Than it rings this cold winter day
It’s not just the poor but the workers
Who take any jobs they can find
We make the best of what we have
But the wealthy are doing just fine
(Comments welcome!)
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
The Lesson
A generation of hardship
A generation denied
Living through the virus
Leaves a longing inside
Millions left homeless
Millions have died
Doctors defied and
Leaders who lied
It might have been better
It might have been worse
A dangerous virus
Became a human curse
We will always remember
The day the world turned
The question now is:
What have we learned?
Will we handle it better?
Will we be more prepared?
Will we choose a leader
Who actually cares?
Will we pull together
Against a common foe?
Or will we let our differences
Divide and grow?
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
Holiday Lockdown
The Black Plague the Spanish Flu
These are the times we’re living through
Is it so hard to understand?
There’s a scourge upon the land
Should we behave how we desire?
Would we walk into a blazing fire?
As the vaccine is being prepared
Let us act as if we cared
It’s one more holiday lockdown
Maybe soon we can all go to town
To do the things we’ve missed
Kiss all the babes we didn’t kiss
Celebrate till the sun goes down
Pass the bottle all around
Until then we can wait
This time next year: it’s a date
