The Mandate

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

The Mandate

 

The people have spoken

In the language of the electoral college

A victory for the party of Musk

The party of Trump

The party of Vladimir Putin

 

A rejection of the party of tomorrow

That never finds its way to today

The party of hope that never finds reality

The party of old-timers

The party of promises

The party of Old Joe and Nancy

The party that talks a good game

But never quite delivers

 

A rejection of the party in power

That transcends all other factors

An affirmation of discontent

Throw all the bums out!

 

Through mass media propaganda

Gerrymandering and unlimited funding

The party of rage and discontent

Steamrolled the electorate

Toppling all branches of government

Including the people’s house

By the very thinnest of margins

 

There is no mandate here

Or if there is

It is a mandate of confusion

It is a mandate of negation

It is a mandate that waits

For the next chance

To say No again

 

Flames of Paradise

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

Flames of Paradise

 

Pasadena, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades

If paradise is an inferno

No place on earth is safe

Carried on the violent winds

Another home is laid to waste

These were the homes of millionaires

Stars of music, stage and screen

But there are working people too

Living out their hope filled dreams

 

Walk a mile in their shoes

See the horror through their eyes

As the flames are drawing nearer

As the smoke consumes the sky

You’ve lost all your belongings

You tell your friends goodbye

Your dreams go up in fire

No one can tell you why

 

What will tomorrow hold for you?

The promises are strained

No one can tell you what to do

Hold on and pray for rain

Be grateful you’re still breathing

Be grateful you can rise

As fire sweeps away the dream

Be grateful for your lives

(Prayers for the people of LA.)

A Monster Storm

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

A Monster Storm

 

Ice, wind and rain

A blast of swirling snow

Rolling thunder in the strain

The harshest winds will blow

From Florida to Maine

From Kansas to the sea

The climate goes insane

These monster storms will be

Arriving like a freight train

Like an army on attack

Before the next one ends

The last is coming back

To visit where we’ve been

With brutal wind and ice

A hundred thousand men

Build shelters through the night

It is not if but when

The storm will strike again

 

We know what it’s about

The climate war is raging

Let there be no doubt

The battles we are staging

Are ones of life and death

In a war that we’ll be waging

Until our final breath

Until our kids are aging

 

Neo Nazi Nation

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Neo Nazi Nation

 

He was born in Pretoria

In a land of segregation

Now he speaks out for the advocates

Of a neo-Nazi nation

In the nation of the Reich

He calls for our salvation

A leadership of whites

A racial agitation

 

He wants to separate the masses

In accordance with their race

Into their separate classes

In order to keep pace

With the technologic masters

In the race to conquer space

 

He doesn’t care about the workers

He only cares about the cost

He would send us all to China

If they’d let him be the boss

He wants to maximize the profits

And minimize the loss

 

It’s as simple as the math

It’s as brutal as the beast

He admires all the strongmen

From the north and from the east

If he could conquer Europe

He would have a massive feast

And in the flames of conquest

Democracy deceased

 

Elon is a fascist neo-Nazi

A threat to all democracies

Now that his truth is showing

His opposition is growing

The Balance

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

The Balance

 

The despots have their champion

With his money and his fame

He yearns to carve an empire

And brand it with his name

 

He’s on the march in Britain

He has headquarters in Berlin

As for the rest of the world

Where do we begin?

 

There’s trouble in South Korea

The Middle East is in flames

Poland, France and Hungary

To our eternal shame

 

There’s panic all around the globe

As we count the final hours

There is no place beyond the reach

Of a madman’s quest for power

 

From Syria to Ecuador

From Columbia to Spain

The fear of falling victim

Like the victims in Ukraine

 

When we lose our sense of balance

Our bond of unity may fall

When the oligarchs take over

It will threaten one and all

 

The Split

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP DAZE

The Split (Trump v. Musk)

 

The overlords are splitting up

Before they’ve had a chance

To drink from the victory cup

To celebrate the great romance

Of MAGA and the billionaires

Who grabbed the rings of power

The old school lords now sit and stare

While the tech lords seize the tower

 

The split is like a major quake

A divide that only grows

When will the chosen leader wake

The people want to know

And whose side will he take?

The side of Musk or that of Bannon?

What difference will it make?

Could we toss them in a canyon?

 

There’s trouble everywhere you look

They don’t know what to do

No one wrote it in their book

Take either side you lose

One side will give you wealth

Beyond your wildest dreams

The other made you president

Now how much does that mean?

 

So take a peek at history

See how this story ends

It’s really not a mystery

There’s nothing left to spend

You cannot close the great divide

You cannot right this wrong

When you choose to stand with one side

It’s the last note of your song

Murder on Bourbon Street

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Murder on Bourbon Street

 

What kind of horror is this?

What kind of madness moved him?

With malice and murder aforethought

To trigger a chain of vengeance

To release a river of blood

To light the match of endless fire

When will it ever end?

 

Don’t tell us it’s the work of God

This is the deed of evil men

This is the depths of darkness

This is the hollow of despair

 

I have walked down Bourbon Street

In the city of the crescent moon

It is a place that embraces all

The diverse joys of life

A place to leave your trouble behind

Where love and wonder rise

In song and celebration

 

What kind of madness chooses

This time and place of jubilation

To execute an act of murder

Of cold-blooded deprivation

A vengeful act of inhumanity

To thrust this world into

An endless chain of terror?

 

When will it end?

When will we finally put down

The book of vengeance

And pick up the book of kindness?

 

Korean Crisis

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Korean Crisis

 

The crisis in South Korea grows

Every day it is in stasis

The delay in justice only shows

The desperate times it faces

 

A democracy cannot endure

An absent state of power

The people now must be assured

The void ends this hour

 

The president did shameful harm

In declaring martial law

He falsely sounded an alarm

To expose a fateful flaw

 

His removal is well justified

To save the nation’s grace

The rule of law he did defy

His act was a disgrace

 

Now all in power must unite

Against self-serving factions

Behind the sovereign people’s rights

Self-government in action

 

Climate Year in Review

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

Climate Year in Review

 

The hottest January in recorded history

A drought in southern Africa

Crops and cattle die in masses

El Nino and the Warming

 

A March of oceanic rising

Average surface temp of 70 degrees*

The bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef

Threatening thousands of ocean species

 

An April heat wave in southern Asia

Too hot for schools in India

Too hot in Bangladesh

Too hot in the Philippines

 

From bad to worse in May

Wildfires incinerate wetlands in Brazil

The effects of warming and deforestation

 

In July Hurricane Beryl decimates Grenada,

Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

 

August crowns the hottest summer ever

Wildfires strike the heart of Europe

 

September comes without relief

Floods destroy crops and displace hundreds

Of thousands in Chad and Nigeria

 

Hurricane Helene wreaks havoc in the

Southeast of the United States

 

October rain in the south of Spain

Strikes like a blast of thunder

A year’s worth of rain in a day

Killing over two hundred in Valencia

 

A rare November drought in the northeast

Of the USA turns leaves into tinder

And warming heat into flames

 

In December it’s official

The hottest year in millennia

Another year of climate change disasters

Another year of human neglect

 

We know what lies ahead

By observing what we left behind

Catastrophe after catastrophe

We simply put it out of mind

 

* Fahrenheit

American Empire

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

American Empire

 

What’s bigger than a business mogul?

A senator or president

What’s better than a president?

A king

What’s grander than a king?

An emperor

Of thee I sing

 

He wants a piece of Canada

The northern passage calls

He wants a slice of Panama

So he can build another wall

He wants to purchase Greenland

Their resources are sweet

He wants an American empire

To make his dream complete

 

Why not a piece of Mexico?

The swath around the border

Venezuelan oil beckons

Conquest by executive order

How about a piece of Uruguay

He could give it to his friends

He could use a stake in Africa

On this his hopes depend

 

It’s a new world order

And it’s just around the bend

The old world order

Is coming to an end

 

Putin: Without Restraint

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Putin: Without Restraint

 

Bombing without restrictions

Killing without restraint

Killing journalists and children

They will hear no complaints

 

Kiev is in tatters

Ukraine is bombed to shreds

Putin does not care

How many families are dead

 

There’s a new sheriff coming

He will arrive in several weeks

Kill as many as you can

You can’t be seen as weak

 

They are killing throughout Kharkiv

Luhansk is laid to waste

Any chance of lasting peace

Will be lost in Putin’s haste

 

To slaughter all their enemies

To alienate their friends

To kill with full abandon

Before the war can end

 

Netanyahu: Without Restraint

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ISRAEL & GAZA

Netanyahu: Without Restraint

 

Bombing without restrictions

Killing without restraint

Killing journalists and children

They will hear no complaints

 

Gaza is in tatters

Lebanon is bombed to shreds

Netanyahu does not care

How many families are dead

 

There’s a new sheriff coming

He will arrive in several weeks

Kill as many as you can

You can’t be seen as weak

 

They are killing throughout Syria

Beirut is laid to waste

Any chance of finding peace

Will be lost in Israel’s haste

 

To slaughter all their enemies

To alienate their friends

To kill with full abandon

Before the war can end

Remember Me

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

Remember Me

 

Remember me when the stars fall

From a sky of floating ash

Remember those who warned you

The end was coming fast

 

I know there is no comfort

In seeing past the bend

Where all is dread and dreary

Where darkness never ends

 

But do not fear or worry

There is little we can do

The die is cast in sorrow

The debt is coming due

 

Embrace your friends and family

As if it’s Christmas Eve

Their love will guide and warm you

When it’s time to mourn and grieve

 

When my time comes remember

I was one who saw it clear

The hard times and the warming

The end time drawing near

 

But hope will not abandon

For every end brings a new start

A vision of a better world

When this world falls apart

 

Spirits of Christmas

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Spirits of Christmas

 

The spirit of Christmas is giving

We celebrate with revelry

As long as we are living

We will decorate our tree

 

Unless of course we’re homeless

Or destitute and poor

Cursed with desperate loneliness

Then Christmas is no more

 

A holiday of majesty

A time of grace and cheer

Good fortune turns to tragedy

Our wonders turn to fear

 

So let us all be grateful

For the bounty we can share

As we enjoy our plateful

Let all know that we care

 

For the spirits are alive

Every day and every year

The giving spirit thrives

In all that we hold dear

 

Clemency (for Leonard Peltier)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN JUSTICE

Clemency (for Leonard Peltier)

 

Half a century behind bars

For crimes he did not commit

Fifty years proclaiming injustice

Five decades of taking the hit

For the crime of not being sorry

That the FBI agents were dead

For surviving the deadly shootout

That the FBI agents led

 

Way back in the year of seventy-three

On the Pine Ridge Reservation

At a place called Wounded Knee

In the heart of the Oglala nation

The American Indian Movement

Planted a staff and laid their claim

To justice the Indian way

 

For seventy* days they held their ground

Seventy days to the nation’s shame

Two warriors of AIM lost their lives

Though few can remember their names**

They remember the name of Leonard Peltier

For he alone took the blame

For the shooting of agents Coler and Williams

For the killing of both the same

 

Peltier was not at Wounded Knee

But he was chosen to pay the price

A person of native bloodline

Had to make that sacrifice

 

There is no justice in America

As long as Leonard Peltier is held

For the crimes of someone unknown

Half a century spent in hell

 

* seventy-one

** Frank Clearwater & Buddy Lamont

Friends and Enemies

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: SYRIA

Friends and Enemies (for Syria)

 

A friend becomes an enemy

An enemy becomes a friend

When circumstances dictate

Past problems we will mend

 

The world is a chess board

In which the pieces are exchanged

What once seemed so familiar

Now seems extremely strange

 

Whose side are you on boys?

On which side do you stand?

You stood with us today boys

Tomorrow you’ll disband

 

We’re sorry for the missiles

We’re sorry for the bombs

We’re sorry for mistaking

Which side you were on

 

Back then you fought for terror

We fought to free the land

We found it was in error

But now we understand

 

Our friends become our enemies

Enemies become our friends

If it never really matters

What message do we send?