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Best Poems Written by Jerald Caldwell

Below are the all-time best Jerald Caldwell poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Jerald Caldwell Poem

Song of the Soldier

Hey Mr. President tell us don't we have the right
To question your authority when you send us off to fight?
Are we never to answer when we hear our brother's cry
And must we all be silent as you march us off to die?
Just like the Pied Piper you lead us around like sheep
Then you strike up the Star Spangled Banner and put us all to sleep.

You say we sealed the contract by the signing of our name
And we've got no right to criticize we all must play the game.
It's true that we signed our name it's true that we enlisted
But that don't mean that we lost our rights like for years you've insisted.

Cause we're the ones on the front line and we're the ones who die
We're the ones who dig the foxholes and make the bombers fly.
We're the ones who drive your tractors, we're the ones who load your guns,
We're the ones who work your factories, we're your daughters and your sons.
We're America's soldiers and sailors yes that's just what we are.
We train and we practice for non-defensive war.

One thing I want you to tell me one thing I want to know,
Where is it that you run and hide where is it that you go?
When the rifles all start singing and the bombs come floating down,
While the body count climbs higher when they lay us in the ground?
I don't want to hear your speeches how we died to be free
How we fought for freedom and justice and this fair land of liberty.

Cause as I look around me I see hunger, death, and pain.
I see homeless people on our city streets in cold and windy rain.
You have all the money and you make all the laws
And I know that you don't understand cause profits is your cause.
You take away our freedom to protect our sweethearts fair
Then you send us off to foreign shores to fight the people there.

The U.S. owns the Persian Gulf with bribes and backroom lying,
We'll protect the straits at any cost with non-defensive dying.
Maybe you can tell me 'bout things I've never known
How dying in those foreign lands protects our folks at home.
We'll keep the sea-lanes open for all those oil filled tankers
We'll make the world safe for Standard Oil and those international bankers.

When diplomacy has failed you see we'll be sending in our guns,
So boys and girls just come along I'm sure we'll all have fun.
There's oil and money over there more taxes for defense,
For the gangsters in America that runs our government.
They've sent our troops to foreign shores to shoot and kill and die,
And maybe they'll come home in a body bag
But I'll say right here - Not I!

Details | Jerald Caldwell Poem

She Don'T Really Need Ya

You're stone cold in your heart man
Hard as solid steel.
And the love she has for you man
Is on the spinning wheel.
     Cause you've been bumming around, slumming around,
     You've thrown her love down on the ground,
     And one of these days you'll find out
     That she don't really need ya.

There's something very wrong man
'Bout the way you carry on.
And if you don't start to treat her right
You'll soon be on your own.
     Cause she's been pushed around, shoved around
     Had her love thrown on the ground,
     And one of these days you'll find out
     That she don't really need ya.

And the way you treat your children
You know it's a crying shame.
Yeah, one of these days they'll leave you man
And stop playing all your games.
Cause they don't need your cutting tongue
No they don't need sarcasm.
What they need is a caring man
Being sure that his love has 'em.
You've hurt them bad with your lying tongue
You've sliced their hearts into
And I'd be surprised if they even have
Any love left at all for you.

So you better stand your watch man
And keep her by your side
Or soon and very soon man
She'll take you for a ride.
     She'll be running around, leaving town
     She'll throw your love down on the ground
     And that's the day you'll find out
     That she don't really need ya.
     Yes that's the day you'll find out
     That she don't really need ya.

Details | Jerald Caldwell Poem

The Ballad of Tommy Lee

Tommy Lee was a Black man,
Born a poor man's son.
From the early days of his wayward youth
Tommy Lee was on the run.

He never had no money,
Not a penny or a dime.
He was always in trouble,
He was hungry all the time.

Be proud of yo family
My Son, you got a name,
His Daddy ever told him,
And don't put yo Mama to shame.

But Tommy wouldn't listen,
As he roamed those out of work streets,
Stole a car and a gun at seventeen,
Was chased down by the police.

Seventeen years of crawling 
Tommy busted free and fled.
Fired his gun and killed a man,
In the street the man lay dead.

A storm of hellfire came his way
From uniforms of blue.
The cry of anguished hurt and pain
Through the night came bursting through.

The gathering crowd just stood and stared
His face was plain to see,
That on that sad night he met his fate,
The ballad of Tommy Lee.

Details | Jerald Caldwell Poem

Love's Lament

Midnight shadows haunt me across the distant expanse of time,
As Moonlight Lady sings her love song to my broken heart.
Her hand is hidden from my face and her caress escapes me.
Betrayed by her seductive charms, I lie alone.
Her melody, her song is bottled up within me.
My heart is full of pain, betrayed by her deceptive kiss.
The darkness of my cocoon engulfs me in a shroud of rejection,
and my sad sojourn has taken me to the pits of despair.
My memories taunt me with a laughing sneer.
Fool am I, lost on my captain ship going fast to nowhere.
If I could turn back time, I would throw caution to the wind,
and conquer her heart as my own.
Then would my days be bright, and my nights would be peaceful.
My poet song would echo across the distant rainbow valley,
and Cupid would be my faithful companion, happiness my friend.
Instead of the songbird poet spreading melodies to hearts afar, 
I lie broken and forsaken at the foot of Heartbreak Hill.
Like Humpty Dumpty I am a broken man in a shell
and the Queen of Hearts' horses trample me underfoot.
My punishment is complete, Her memory torments me.
I languish alone mocked by love's foreign whisper.
Rejected, naked and buried, my heart is laid to rest.
Loneliness beckons me to come, and I cry her song in the night,
Hope drowns in my bottle of tears, my book of remembrance is full.
Separated from love's desire that is ever around yon corner,
I cry in my midnight musings with no ears to hear my sad lament.

Details | Jerald Caldwell Poem

Slave City

Have you ever been to Slave City
Ever on my mind,
And it really is a grave pity
For all those friends of mine.

A visit back to another time,
With massah and the whip
But this is now a modern crime,
A slowly sinking ship.

No running water in Slave City
Just buckets and a well.
A child at play gets dirt and gritty
In a cold and living hell.

The city bosses run Slave City
Down in Selma, Alabam.
In their three-piece suits they're so pretty
And they don't give a damn.

No white sheets worn in Slave City
Too muddy in the sty
And politicians there are so witty
Taking money on the sly.

No white folks live in Slave City
On the other side of the tracks
And cleaning maids they haven't any
To clean their one room shacks.

No welfare cars in Slave City
No money in their hands
Just hard times there in Slave City
And no one understands.

Details | Jerald Caldwell Poem

Waking Up

The bedside alarm jerks me rudely
from the slumbering solitude of my bed 
And jolts me into a half-conscious state of confused mania,
As five o'clock shadows intrude upon
the foggy bog of my mind.
Beckoning me to arise from my slumbering nest
of troubled sleep
To meet the misty morning challenge of another day.

Outside my window world
A moonlight sonata calls my name in yawning whispers
to share the loneliness of the moment before I rise.
The darkness of the room engulfs me in its arms
and holds me motionless in its embrace.
The sounding shriek of the alarm rings out again,
Piercing my soul like a hungry nail.
Protesting the injustice, I am dragged to my feet 
by the cacophonic sound of the clock
And tossed into the arms of the unforgiving day.

Rising, I stagger forth as if in a drunken stupor
And sudden pain assassinates my senses like an electric shock,
as my toe makes an unwelcome rendezvous
With the corner of my bed.
Crying out, I sit back down and rub my toe.
Turning on the lamp, the darkness disappears from sight,
Seeking refuge from the light of the unwelcome morning.
O' that I could join darkness in her flight of fancy 
For a few moments longer before the light of day
Claims me as its own.

Trudging forth into the cold floor enclave of the kitchen
I find my way to the far corner counter,
Home to the maker of my magic morning elixir.
I turn on the switch and the tempting aroma 
of Coffee teases my nose with a smile,
Reminding me that together we can conquer the world.
La taza de cafe' raised to my lips,
"Ah," I think, "Yes, i can do this."

Details | Jerald Caldwell Poem

The Promise

I want you to know that I love you
More and more as time passes by
And I know that I'll never love you as I should, Babe
But I promise you truly I'll try.

I'm not always there to be with you
I'm sorry for the tears that you've cried
But in my heart we're always together
Yes I promise you truly I've tried

I'm so all alone without you
The void in my heart makes me sigh
And I'll do all I can to be with you
Yes I promise you truly I'll try.

Your warmth and your beauty enchants me
If I lost you then surely I'd die
And i know that we'll always be lovers
Forever if only we'll try.

You're my lover, my sweetheart, my darling
I can see by the glow in your eyes
We'll be together forever and ever
But only if both of us tries.