This is Not a Drill

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

 

Not a Drill (Ode to Canada)

 

Sound the alarm

This is not a drill

We’re sworn to do no harm

Yet we feel a sudden chill

 

Our neighbor is our friend

We’ve never had a better

Our money we would lend

Followed strictly by the letter

 

Now everything has changed

We’ve threatened them with debt

Our friendship is estranged

It’s as if we’ve never met

 

Take heed while you can

For this is not a drill

Our leader wants your land

He has the power and the will

 

He will take it if you let him

He expects you to defer

If you’re afraid you will upset him

Do not let his threat deter

 

Time to stand and fight back

Time to summon all your friends

Do not waver, stay on track

Do not fold or bend

 

This is not a drill

It is a call to arms

Summon all your will

Sound the alarm

The Ugly & the Grotesque

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

 

The Ugly & the Grotesque *

 

In the name of our president

The ugly and the grotesque

Will vie for the president’s favor

Daddy loves me best!

 

One operates in prejudice

The other deals in greed

If either has his way

The common folks will bleed

 

It’s not a pretty picture

No matter where you turn

Without a moral compass

The people will get burned

 

Neither has a beating heart

Both want to lead the band

Masters of the wicked arts

The finest in the land

 

With these two on the playing field

No one can be assured

The power that they wield depends

On who has the final word

 

* Bannon and Musk

 

The Arrogance of Wealth

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

The Arrogance of Wealth

 

He thinks himself the Uberman

The one who knows it all

He bought the patriotic brand

In the rise before the fall

 

The arrogance that money buys

Beyond what he deserves

That leads to countless boastful lies

An ego beyond words

 

He’s certain he’s the smartest man

Who ever roamed the earth

No one could ever understand

How much his money’s worth

 

He is the king of everything

The lord of all he sees

His smile can make the morning sing

His touch can cure disease

 

So don’t you ever doubt him

He knows beyond all knowledge

We can’t do it without him

We’re kinders to his college

 

Democracy is Dead

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Democracy is Dead

 

Democracy is by and by

Racing swiftly to the grave

Its founding always was a lie

The people were enslaved

 

Where were you on that solemn day

When the dream was put to bed?

Did you hear our vaunted leaders say

Democracy is dead?

 

Did it catch you by surprise?

Did you think it was enshrined?

You couldn’t see through all the lies

All the planets realigned

 

We warned you it could fall

Without a strong defense

We were up against the wall

We warned you what it meant

 

So now we are consigned

To a life under the gun

We’ll have to toe the line

The oligarchs have won

 

Appeasement

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Appeasement

 

Neville Chamberlain appeased the Reich

Before the Reich invaded Poland

Our leader knows it is not right

But he’ll give Zelensky no land

 

Mexico appeased our president

Before he launched his trade war

A tariff where all the money went

Slamming shut an open door

 

I understand the need to please

The big bully on the border

But that’s no reason to appease

It just fuels his cruel disorder

 

Our good neighbors understand

He is not a man of common sense

He only cares about his brand

His sense of fairness bent

 

Appeasing him will do no good

It will only make his fire burn

All who’ve known him understood

This man will never learn

 

Broken Promise

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP & PUTIN

 

Broken Promise

 

He promised to end the war

With fairness, honor and dignity

Instead his clumsy White House roar

Called for surrender without indemnity

 

If you don’t intend to keep your word

Let it be behind closed doors

For now all the world has heard

Your betrayal on the war

 

You are a Putin underling

You answer to his orders

When he snaps his fingers you must sing

Expand the Russian borders

 

You’ve broken this and every other

Promise that you’ve made

For you are Putin’s little brother

The best of plans you’ve laid

 

To redraw the world’s geography

The Russian American empires

To write a new biography

To set the world on fire

 

The whole of Europe is alarmed

They will not let this pass

They will not yield to Putin’s charm

Or bow down to the American …

Canada Strikes Back

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRADE WARS

 

Canada Strikes Back

 

Our president has made it clear

Our neighbors are our adversaries

It’s Vladimir Putin he holds dear

The entire free world is wary

 

As he wages war on our good neighbors

He thinks they have no cards to play

All our allies are out of favor

He thinks there is no price to pay

 

But that which burns goes both ways

The markets are heading down

We’re not the only ones who play

What comes will go around

 

The same for all our former friends

When hit they will strike back

Our balanced trade is at an end

For resolve they do not lack

 

So if we want to play that game

We’ll find that all will lose

To you that fouled belongs the blame

We all must pay our dues

 

(Trudeau announces counter measures

to US tariffs.)

 

The Blood

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WAR

 

The Blood

 

You called yourself a champion

To the cause of global peace

But the only thing you have accomplished

Is to embolden the beast *

 

You control the air defenses

That block the bombs of war

You may be good at walls and fences

But it’s not working any more

 

Look down upon your bloody hands

The bloody hands of war

While you make your play for foreign lands

You’re creating World War Four *

 

You’ve set the stage for Vladimir

To build his bloody empire

Our former friends are filled with fear

For a world you’ve set on fire

 

How dare you claim diplomacy

When you’ve set the stage for war

But what you get is what you’ll see

You’re bloody to the core

 

* The beast of war.

* The Cold War was WW III.

 

Santiago Blackout

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

Santiago Blackout

 

Where were you when the lights went out?

When the city lost all power

When the purest mind began to doubt

And the spirits ruled the hour

 

Men and women ran for cover

Children hid and cowered

Sweet Isabella lost her lover

When the spirits claimed the hour

 

And I was but a passing ship

Tossed out to the seven seas

I felt the earth beneath me slip

And I thought this cannot be

 

We were cast into the deepest dark

We were captured by a spell

This failing leaves a lasting mark

A moment spent in hell

 

We will never find our way back home

To the place we left behind

The truth is that we’re all alone

With the ghosts that haunt our minds

 

The Imperial President

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

 

The Imperial President

 

He wants it all

There is nothing too great

And nothing too small

To dissuade him of wanting

Control of it all

 

He wants Manhattan

He wants Brooklyn too

He wants a hotel in Moscow

To see him through

 

He wants all of Canada

He wants Greenland too

If you think he’s joking

He wants a piece of you

 

He will not be stopped

By any laws of man

He owns the Supremes

To carry out his plan

 

He has warned his enemies

Just get out of his way

If you have a problem

He’ll deport you today

 

Flirting with the Swastika

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Flirting with the Swastika

 

You don’t dance with the devil

If you don’t like the heat

You don’t ask for a chair

If you don’t want a seat

 

You don’t joke about the war

Unless you know what for

You don’t curse the house you live in

Unless you’re out the door

 

You don’t wish upon a star

If you do not have a wish

You don’t travel very far

If you only want to fish

 

You don’t sing with the fascists

Unless you’re in the fascist fold

You don’t flirt with a swastika

To pretend that you’re bold

 

Some things just aren’t funny

And some things do not rhyme

You don’t take dirty money

If you only want the time

 

In Bed with Putin

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: PUTIN

 

In Bed with Putin

 

The world condemns Russian aggression

Demands withdrawal from Ukraine

Laments the dictator’s oppression

Yet their protests are in vain

 

Exempted from the world’s opinion

In a measure of disgrace

Are the fascists and their minions

The United States is out of place

 

Our president has made it clear

He despises all democracies

We are on the side of Vladimir

And all the world’s autocracies

 

We’ll pretend it is the cause of peace

As we form a dark alliance

Democracies we’ll value least

As we face the world’s defiance

 

We’re in it for the money now

We will hope that we survive

We’ll watch the NASDAQ and the Dow

For the oligarchs will thrive

 

Zelensky Stands

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

 

Zelensky Stands

 

Our president disgraced himself        

In the vaunted Oval Office

Before the eyes of the world

In full view of the people

A display of cowardly rudeness

For everyone to see

 

Every American who stands against Zelensky

Stands against the sacred vow

Every nation that stands against Ukraine

Stands against freedom and democracy

Every nation that stands with our president

Stands against justice and the rule of law

 

We don’t need to know what Vladimir Putin

Holds over our president

What we have seen in the glaring light

Of public outrage and embarrassment

Is more than sufficient

 

Zelensky is a champion of liberty

Standing up to a powerful despot

That our president chooses to stand

With the despot against democracy

With the dictator against freedom

With the mass murderer against

The defender of Ukrainian sovereignty

Is beyond the bounds of human dignity

 

Every American should be embarrassed

Every European should feel betrayed

Every citizen of the free world

Should be forewarned

 

America is on the wrong side of justice

America is on the wrong side of history

America is on the wrong side of decency

 

As America falls

Zelensky stands

The Shakedown

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

 

The Shakedown

 

We expect you to sit idly by while

We negotiate your existence

 

You want weapons?

You’ll have to pay

You want a future?

You’ll have no say

 

We want your mineral resources

Or we’ll send you to the dogs

 

You want a nation?

Get out of the way

You want your freedom?

You’ll need our okay

 

We will give you what you need

If you give us what we want

 

This is our game

Would you like to play?

We have no shame

It ends today.

 

Germany Rises

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

Germany Rises

 

Do not be fooled by the headline

The neo-Nazis were beat down

The German people were not blind

They turned their state around

 

They withstood the avalanche

Of propaganda well financed

Limb for limb and branch for branch

The German people would not dance

 

For they have seen this act before

They know exactly where it leads

A world of hardship and of war

They refused to plant the seeds

 

Now it is time to move ahead

Put up the walls of our defense

The republic is not dead

Our best intentions are not spent

 

Rise up now and spread the word

Hope and freedom are at stake

All good people, have you heard?

Time to rise and stay awake

 

The Opposite of Truth

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP

 

The Opposite of Truth

 

It is one thing to deceive

To deny and obscure the truth

It is another to proclaim the opposite

To describe the elderly as youth

To state the hero of the story

Of Lincoln’s assassination

Was really John Wilkes Booth

 

The confederacy fought for freedom

The union fought for slaves

Those who stood were cowards

And those who ran were brave

Global warming is a fallacy

It is really the Big Freeze

Caused by wind and solar

We can solve it with ease

 

Zelensky is a tyrant

Who wanted this brutal war

Vladimir Putin is a hero

Who pays tribute to the poor

White people are oppressed

Black people live in ease

There’s no such thing as covid

Or any other strange disease

 

Triumvirate of Fear

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

 

Triumvirate of Fear

 

Russia invaded a peaceful nation

Without the slightest cause

They didn’t bother with invocation

Of international laws

 

Putin tipped the old world order

With an act of aggressive war

A violation of sovereign borders

The monster at the door

 

We answered Ukraine’s desperate call

For help in time of need

Now we’ll witness Ukraine’s fall

As Putin take the lead

 

We cannot be the least surprised

We saw this horror coming

We warned the people far and wide

We witnessed the great dumbing

 

Putin, Trump and Elon Musk

A triumvirate of fear

The blood will flow from dawn to dusk

Their intentions are quite clear

 

Navalny Lives

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RUSSIA

 

Navalny Lives

 

Killed in an arctic prison cell

A thousand miles from home

The spirit of Navalny lives

He does not walk alone

 

His name strikes fear in Moscow

They shudder at the thought

His ghost forever haunts them

Forgotten he is not

 

The people still remember

The man who dared defy him *

That cold day in September

Proudly they stood by him **

 

He lives within their hearts

As you fight your dirty war

He cried out from the start

And the people heard his roar

 

The day you killed Navalny

You let his spirit rise

To inspire the resistance

To expose your dirty lies

 

* Putin

** Navalny