Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Peace Dividend
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
13 Feb 2013
🖨️ Print Article

by Raymond Nat Turner

General Dynamics, Northrup-
Grummond-Lockheed-Martin marionettes
Over-populating capitalist hill—
Pushing up shares on the NASDAQ?...

 

Peace Dividend
by Raymond Nat Turner

11/9: When the "Evil Empire"
Ended, warlords swore
There would be a
"Peace
Dividend," but

Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...

Cold war with old war?

Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...

Enemy of the month,

Threat of the week,
Operation of the day,
War around the world,
War around the clock—
War for evermore?

Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...

Surges of war profiteers
Soliciting no-bid contracts,
Like packs of pedophile
Priests, volunteering for
Blacked-out Boys Clubs?

Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...

Hearings to hear lies
Looped like capitalist
Politicians' promises, with
Pharmaceutical side effects—
Hearings asking questions
Answered already by bloody,
Broken, bodies of babies, their
Farmer fathers, mothers, their
Grandmothers, grandfathers and
Neighbors, all commodified as

Collateral damage?

Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...

Eternal terms of Strom Thurmond and
Scoop Jackson—the Senator from Boeing—
Disguised as Di-Fi down to her New York
Stock Exchange ticker, wig concealing
Her warhead, fresh fragrance of death,
Plutonium breath, from a mouth moving
Like other GE, General Dynamics, Northrup-
Grummond-Lockheed-Martin marionettes
Over-populating capitalist hill—
Pushing up shares on the NASDAQ?...

11/9: When the "Evil Empire"
Ended, warlords swore
There would be a
"Peace
Dividend," but

Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end?...

 

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com.

Raymond Nat Turner (c) 2013 All Rights Reserved

 

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • Anthony Rogers-Wright
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    "Abundance" and the Democrats' Neo-Liberalism
    18 Apr 2025
    We’re joined by Anthony Rogers-Wright, a Black Agenda Report contributor and a climate/environmental liberation and racial justice advocate, writer, and policy expert. He is an active member of the…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Western Nations Join the United States in Repressing Dissent
    16 Apr 2025
    Trump is not unique in the collective west. As the crisis of capitalism deepens, "democratic" states intensify repression and criminalize dissent.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Racism and the American University, Addison Gayle, Jr., 1971
    16 Apr 2025
    The appraisal of American universities as liberal institutions remains one of the purest examples of the elasticity of the English language.
  • nato protest
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    NATO Was Founded to Crush Communist, Socialist, and Anti-colonial Movements Worldwide
    16 Apr 2025
    NATO was never a good idea gone wrong. It was founded to crush communist, socialist, and anti-colonial movements in Europe and around the world.
  • Jon Jeter
    The Dog Whistle Heard ‘Round the World: How Timothy McVeigh’s Oklahoma City Bombing Birthed the Trump Era
    16 Apr 2025
    Thirty years after Timothy McVeigh’s Oklahoma City bombing, his legacy lives on in the racist mass shooters, anti-government extremists, and MAGA reactionaries who continue to target Black…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us