Stable working class neighborhoods are the bane of speculators, developers and capitalist politicians.
Lording over the landscape like giant
Insects sucking soul, blood, chocolate
into multi-colored mushrooms
Metastasizing citywide.
Officers ordering vacant storefronts,
lined up like soldiers, to make money,
while brothers with cupped hands
platoon on plastic crates at entrances to
$4-a-cup coffee shops with belligerent baristas.
Beneath fiery crimson skies,
afternoon freeways are fuming parking lots.
Capitalismâs poisoning water and air,
and ignorant exploiters donât care!
Pyramids and huts; tuxes and tails,
unwashed buttsâtents and jails.
First come the cranesâthen the
Tents, skyrocketing mortgagesâthen the
Rents⊠money, money, money for military
Bases in far off placesâbut, itâs âPie in the
sky,â to demand affordable living spaces!
Basketball teamâs outgrown The Town,
football teamâs slipping off to Sin
City after slurping at the troughâŠ
Capitalismâs poisoning water and air,
and ignorant exploiters donât care!
Pyramids and huts; tuxes and tails,
unwashed buttsâtents and jails.
First come the cranesâthen the
Tents, skyrocketing mortgagesâthen the
Rents⊠money, money, money for military
Bases in far off placesâbut, itâs âPie in the
sky,â to demand affordable living spaces!
And we play dress-up in grown folksâ clothesâ
Tiny red, white and blue stickersâ pretending
weâre fixing it in 20 minutes⊠every 2-4 years âŠ
© 2018. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.
The party that installed its presidential candidate without a primary vote now blames its 2024 loss on everything except its own contempt for its base and allegiance to neo-liberal policies.
"SONNY" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
Six years ago, George Floyd was murdered by police. The reaction was swift - the streets erupted and demands to defund the police spread across the country. Yet, the response from Democrats wasâŠ
Compliant Arab regimes spent decades spreading anti-Iran propaganda, but the current assault on Iran is shattering those lies.
The U.S. indicted 94-year-old RaĂșl Castro not out of concern for the people of Cuba or the U.S., but because six decades of sanctions have failed to destroy Cuba's revolutionary continuity.
