Starvation in Gaza

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GAZA

 

Starvation in Gaza

 

Remember the Holocaust

Remember the concentration camps

Remember Auschwitz and Buchenwald

Remember Dachau and Langenstein

Remember the images of starvation

Skin devoid of flesh covering skeletons

Gaunt faces stripped of hope

Eyes pleading for relief

A portrait of inhumanity to man

An exploration of the lowest depths

Depravity and desperation

 

Remember the perpetrators

Remember the solemn promise

Never again, never again

 

Now look to Gaza

Familiar images on darker skin

Hopelessness and desperation

Living skeletons and bodies devoid of flesh

 

The victims become the perpetrators

And the cry becomes the accusation

The condemnation, the curse

Never again, never again

 

Protests in Kiev

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

 

Protests in Kiev

 

Divisions in the ranks

Protests in Ukraine

Rubles in the bank

All efforts are in vain

 

Putin puts his dirty hands

In places they don’t belong

A sour note inside the band

Will fracture every song

 

It’s hard to maintain unity

In the face of constant pressure

But unity is what we need

With faith in equal measure

 

Russian hands are everywhere

Beware the infiltrators

Pretending that they really care

When all along they’re traitors

 

Do not forget democracy

Without it we are lost

We can’t afford hypocrisy

One man is not the boss

 

Gringo Go Home!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: IMMIGRATION

 

Gringo Go Home

 

Up north they want the border closed

Down south they’re beginning to see

Both sides want the change to slow

They’re not sure what to plead

 

The northerners are moving in

The cost of housing on the rise

The locals lose, the landlords win

When they cater to the gentrified

 

The workers cannot pay the rent

They being pushed aside

Their patience is being spent

Not much longer will they ride

 

It’s happening across the board

On both sides of the border

It strikes on a rebellious chord

And triggers law and order

 

The people rise up everywhere

Their anger springs from fear

You don’t want our workers there?

We don’t want your money here!

 

(Massive protests in Mexico City)

 

Burn Baby Burn

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

Burn Baby Burn

 

Drill baby drill, burn baby burn

The US blames Canada

The climate takes a turn

Smoke comes down from northern skies

The ancient timber burning

Old growth brush like tinder fries

There ain’t no sense in learning

No one wants to hear the facts

The temperature is rising

The train is going off the tracks

There ain’t no compromising

 

It’s burn baby burn, drill baby drill

We’ve put the wheels in motion

Our time is nearly standing still

With stubborn blind devotion

The money men have got it all

The rest of us don’t matter

We failed to answer every call

Fat cats are getting fatter

Through it all we’re burning more

It’s rotten to the core

 

It’s burn baby burn

When will we ever learn?

And it’s drill baby drill

We haven’t got the will

 

Security

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: PEACE

 

Security

 

Security cannot be achieved through firearms

Security cannot be achieved by force

Though desired by all and everywhere

Security is a matter of course

 

We are not made safe by walls and fences

We are not made safe by arms

If we wish to erect our best defenses

We must honor the saying: Do no harm

 

No one wants to live danger

Yet danger lives most everywhere

It might be a friend or an unknown stranger

It may glance at you or stare

 

You will know it when it takes its place

You will know it when it acts

When it takes you in its cold embrace

Your whole world will turn to black

 

Love your neighbor as you love yourself

Be as fair and honest as you know how

Every human should be treated well

More than ever we need it now

 

Nefarious Conspiracy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CONSPIRACY

 

Nefarious Conspiracy

 

I am not one who discounts the possibility

Of nefarious conspiracy among the elite

You could fill the pages of world history

With conspiracy in victory and defeat

 

The rise of the Nazis was a conspiracy

The murder of Abraham Lincoln

Suspicion rises to strong possibility

With both Kennedys and nine-eleven

 

Those who mock conspiracy theories

Have long hidden their heads in the sand

It’s never the story that wrong and dreary

It is who came up with the plan

 

There are conspiracies in darkened rooms

That are being formed as I speak

There are countless skeletons in the tombs

If the naked truth is what you seek

 

Those in power have all conspired

To keep it in their greedy hands

With evil purpose the halls are wired

As we serve at their command

 

Military Conscription

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Military Conscription in Germany

 

When counting crimes against humanity

Do not neglect armed conscription

It is a symptom of our insanity

A morally bankrupt predilection

 

The desperate hour is drawing near

And we are desperate for solutions

Our trepidations and our fears

Are leading us to devolution

 

An army of conscripts will not serve

With the force of volunteers

A cause that’s just does not deserve

A fighting force that’s commandeered

 

We are not like the North Koreans

We do not do what despots do

That is not the right idea

To raise an army fair and true

 

If a great army must be raised

Let us appeal to the heart and mind

Move beyond conscription daze

Leave those evil ways behind

 

(Germany considers conscription)

 

Friends and Adversaries

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRADE 

 

Friends and Adversaries

 

We used to be the best of friends

Now we pose a threat

On trade our friendship now depends

The balance of our debt

 

For Canada and Mexico

Our patience has grown thin

The tariff threat will come and go

And neither side will win

 

Brazil was once our ally

When Bolsonaro was in charge

But Trump and Lula will not lie

Their relationship is hard

 

We used to like democracies

At the least we gave the lie

Now we only like autocracies

That virtue would defy

 

We need to find our truth again

We’ve lost it in the haze

Let’s move to where we’ve never been

Those better, brighter days

 

 

Climate Deniers

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

Deniers

 

For the many souls who were lost that day

The survivors can only pray

They throw up their arms and plead God’s will

With a shrug that gives me a chill

I wonder what these people will say

When they learn there was a safer way

They did not do what they should have done

They denied the truth that now should stun

There are no warnings for floods or fires

In the world of the climate deniers

 

They say that no one could have known

But they did and they said it clearly

The threat of disasters has only grown

And the warnings were repeated yearly

The hurricanes will batter the coast

The floods will ravage the land

Those who have little will suffer the most

And they’ll blame it on God’s left hand

But the rain and wind and the raging fire

Are the products of the climate deniers

 

 

MacArthur Park

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: MASS DEPORTATION

 

MacArthur Park

 

The day the troops came to LA

The images are stark

They did not come to play

When they stormed MacArthur Park

 

They came for those with darker skin

The workers of the sun

I doubt that they will come again

The summer has begun

 

We need the workers in the fields

We need them in our homes

It seems the soldiers made a deal

The nation sold their souls

 

The people all around the land

Have made their feelings clear

In case you did not understand

You are not welcome here

 

If you serve a cause that’s just and fair

We would not need to ask

If you were welcomed anywhere

Why do you wear a mask?

 

 

Summer Winds

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

Summer Winds

 

The summer winds blow hot this year

Sparking dry brush into flame

The people run or hide in fear

On the outskirts of Marseille

 

For this the French are well prepared

They halted trains and planes

Though the fire spread and flared

It was tempered in the main

 

Wildfires strike across the globe

The floods and monster storms

Catastrophes will come in droves

As the planet has grown warm

 

It’s far too late to stem the tide

Disasters will come hard and fast

Destruction will be far and wide

The damage done will last

 

Tell your leaders everywhere

In every town and nation

The time is now to get prepared

For the great acceleration

 

 

We Will Get By

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: DEMOCRACY

 

We Will Get By

 

You have to believe we will get by

You have to believe

That democracy will prevail

When all is said …

The autocrats, the dictators, the wannabes,

The hustlers, the con men, the promise

You everything wise guys...

They’re all lies

You have to believe the people

Will see through them

 

The trouble is there are so many of them

They come in all forms and colors

They wear fancy clothes and wry grins

They drive Tesla’s and Cadillac Seville’s

They bring you sparkling gifts

But their gold is pyrite

Their magic is a conjuring spell

Their promise is an empty shell

 

There is only one truth

She is not fancy

She has no bells and whistles

She is not the belle of the ball

But she is steady and persistent

She is the stronger tenfold

And democracy is her friend

And democracy we’ll defend

 

We will get by

 

(re: Grateful Dead’s A Touch of Grey)

 

BRICS in the Wall

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

BRICS in the Wall

 

Lula took aim at the US of A

The Saudis looked on silently

The Iranians had much to say

The Emirates could hardly breathe

 

They all blasted the Israelis

As they were right to do

The Palestinians are on their knees

With no one left to sue

 

But when you blast the warmongers

Yet fall silent on Ukraine

You should hold your tongues longer

Before singing that refrain

 

The Russians have no virtue

The Chinese little more

Give credit wherever it is due

Give none to the masters of war

 

Stand up for all democracies

Oppose the bold oppressors

Call out all those hypocrisies

As something less than lesser

 

 

 

Adaptability

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

Adaptability

 

Humans are nothing if not adaptable

We thrive under harsh conditions

We survive the near impossible

We convert our suppositions

 

Though we’ve no intent to harm her

The earth is growing warmer

While the summer’s getting longer

We adapt by getting stronger

 

When we cannot breathe the air

We’ll filter it through masks

If a curious child should ask

We’ll pretend we do not care

 

When the storms become a beast

That rails from west to east

We’ll seek shelter beneath the ground

Where there are no sights or sounds

 

We’ll adapt to almost anything

But someday they’ll wonder why

We refused to stop the poisoning

Of the water and the sky

 

We’ll say we did not understand

Knowing fully well we did

We thought we’d find a better land

So we took the highest bid

Camp Mystic (Texas Flood)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

Camp Mystic

 

On the banks of the Guadalupe

They camped for a hundred years

Now the camp is under water

Swollen with a flood of tears

 

The girls of the Christian summer camp

Were fast asleep that night

Some were playing by the light of a lamp

When a storm came into sight

 

They did not know the depth of it

The river rose so hard and fast

They could not know the breadth of it

It hit them with a blast

 

It swept away their summer fun

It stole away their innocence

The days of carefree youth are done

It never will make sense

 

The camp will never be the same

A place of boundless sorrow

A tragedy will be its name

Each day beyond tomorrow

 

(At last count, 27 girls were missing

from Camp Mystic in Texas.)

 

The Fourth

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN HISTORY

 

The Fourth

 

Two and a half centuries ago

We declared our independence

Mad King George felt the blow

And sang a long lament

 

No longer would we serve

A master far away

We took what we deserved

Our Independence Day

 

Our founders were the best

In mind, heart and soul

Old Ben Franklin and the rest

They kept the union whole

 

We thank them to this day

Though their faults are very clear

Their light would shine the way

Through many troubled years

 

This day we remember them

And the nation they envisioned

A circle of enlightened men

Who made a hard decision

 

They created a democracy

The first in the modern age

They defeated an autocracy

And sparked a monarch’s rage

 

Today the kings are figureheads

The queens do not hold sway

We’ve followed where the founders led

It’s Independence Day

 

(Happy Fourth of July!!!)

 

Heat Wave in Europe

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

Heat Wave

 

All of Europe is on fire

From Madrid to Istanbul

The temperature is higher

No matter where you go

 

Everywhere the warming

Is driving through the air

Everywhere the harming

Is much too much to bear

 

The children are surviving

The heat is bearing down

Relief is not arriving

The waves are all around

 

You want to run for shelter

But shelter’s hard to find

A dash through helter skelter

An unforgiving bind

 

We all become believers

When children start to die

We’ll curse the rank deceivers

Who let us live the lie

 

The warming is upon us

The time has come to pass

Recall the ones who conned us

The flags will fly half mast

 

 

A Dangerous Game

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WAR WITH IRAN

 

A Dangerous Game

 

Our president is playing a dangerous game

The damage beyond our control

Soon he’ll be playing escape the blame

For paying the Israeli toll

 

There is no justification for war

Netanyahu is playing his fiddle

The mouse is using the lion to roar

Our soldiers are caught in the middle

 

Bombs and missiles light up the sky

From Doha to Bahrain

While we pray that no one has to die

Our allies are feeling the strain

 

The consequence of what we have done

May be felt for a hundred years

Wars like this are never won

Regardless of what you will hear

 

We have started a war we cannot end

We have answered Israel’s call

On a hostile world we can depend

Another world order may fall