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

Everything they touch turns to rubble
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
11 Mar 2026
🖨️ Print Article
Caracas, Venezuela after bombing
Smoke rises in Caracas, Venezuela on January 3, 2026 following a US bombing campaign. Photo via X

Saddest symphony on Earth. Trembling notes, harrowing screams, wails,
moans. Same timbre, same tones. Same saline Palestine tears as Sudan.
Same as Ukraine, Lebanon, Venezuela, Iran. Same 1% at war with
workers of the world — and Everything they touch turns to rubble

Tiny backpacks, bloody body parts litter pulverized apartment and charred-
car streets. Stolen lives litter flattened hospitals and schools. Litter crimson
coffee shop floors. Litter blackened fields of vaporized crops.
Everything they touch turns to rubble

They bomb, they strut. They prance and ‘dance,’ and bomb and bomb again.
Their lucrative explosions silence music of whining saws, pounding hammers 
raising roofs to house the unhoused. While abroad they shout, “stay sheltered!”
Everything they touch turns to rubble

High off homeland invasion hubris, hostile takeovers weeks before, they
dream of easy money. Quick work of a weekend war. But weekend morphs
into weeks. And weeks into months. And months into the longest leanest years.
Everything they touch turns to rubble

Pyrite wrecking balls revolving around orange planet, Pedophilia. ‘Round its Epstein
news cycles. ‘Round its smell of death, scent of sulphur, white phosphorus fragrance
anointing them. They send holy warriors to strike Saturdays, Sundays and holidays; and
Everything they touch turns to rubble

They strike when Essential Workers catch fleeting winks on speeding trains roaring
beneath snoring cities. When countrymen and women dreaming of better worlds are
not yet woke. Cruel Reich Cult strikes under cover of darkness over and over again
Everything they touch turns to rubble

Cruel Reich Cult strikes weekends when working ones double over panting,
catching blitzkrieg breaths. Or meditate, chant, or pray protecting their souls,
spirits and minds from repeated trauma of terrorist Psy-Ops on our damn dime.
Everything they touch turns to rubble

Body count from One Big Beautiful Bank Job. Wreckage, wake of DOGE:
Department Of Grifter Enrichment. Frozen, drowned, burned bodies pile up at
feet of foolish climate deniers; with roadkill credited to Mengele medicine men
Everything they touch turns to rubble

J6 white supremacists storming Capitalist Hill, ransacking offices, shitting in its halls —
ugly omen — foreshadowed shredded social safety net. Scuttled science and education.
War House-Offal Office grifted in gold. Kennedy Center shuttered; Bill Of Rights redacted.
Everything they touch turns to rubble


© 2026. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet, BAR's Poet-in-Residence, and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can vote for his work at GoFundMe and PayPal.

MAGA
Donald Trump
Iran
Palestine
Venezuela
Sudan
imperialism
War
Corruption
Epstein Class

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


Related Stories

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The U.S. Determination to Achieve Full Spectrum Dominance is Not In Decline
23 September 2026
The trope of the United States being in a state of decline is a common one, but it should not be accepted without scrutiny. The U.S.
Jacqueline Luqman
The Perfect Victim Narrative Applied To Foreign Policy Only Keeps U.S. Imperialism Alive
23 September 2026
The demand to call out alleged crimes in Iran or Cuba while those countries face annihilation from the U.S.
Roberta Rivolta
Western Activism and the Axis of Resistance
23 September 2026
Western pro-Palestinian activism isolates Palestine from its regional allies, depoliticizing its struggle and reinforcing colonial
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The Ultimate Betrayal of Alex Saab and the Fate of Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan People
16 September 2026
The United States got its hands on Alex Saab a second time in order to use him in its case against Nicolás Maduro. The U.S.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
COMMENTARY: The Shrinking American Empire, Glen Ford, 2009
16 September 2026
“The Iraq invasion greatly accelerated the process of U.S. imperialism’s decline.” 
Gary Wilson
Germany’s war drive feeds the far right in Saxony-Anhalt
16 September 2026
The AfD's landslide in Saxony-Anhalt reflects real working-class anger at the war and the arms buildup, but the party redirects that anger towa
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
In the same boat?
09 September 2026
BOOM goes tuna and swordfish stuffed brown burlap bags aboardboats blown to smithereens. Presto! Fishing is now narco-trafficking.
Dhoruba bin-Wahad
Guardian Foray: All That's Not Real Is Camouflage
09 September 2026
An Open Letter from the American "Left" allegedly on behalf of unnamed persons said to be Iranian political prisoners has provided co
Libertad para Fergie
Free Fergie Chambers: Solidarity Is Not a Crime
09 September 2026
Fergie Chambers is an American philanthropist who was arrested on July 10 in Ibiza, Spain, by order of the Trump Administration.
Luciano Vasapollo
Cuba Stands Firm, Venezuela Risks Losing its Sovereignty
09 September 2026
Cuba's leadership has chosen resistance over subordination as the blockade tightens, but Venezuela's sovereignty is being stripped away.

More Stories


  • Rosa Parks
    Ingrid Banks , Jaime Alves
    Antiblackness and Palestinian Humanity: A Call to Resist Fear
    06 Mar 2024
    Internationalism is the path toward Black liberation. Black people must resist the push to silo our movements and move in this spirit of Rosa Parks - with fearless integrity.
  • A mourner places incense at a memorial for Aaron Bushnell
    Julia Wright
    A Love Supreme
    06 Mar 2024
    Aaron Bushnell's act of self-immolation is a symbol and a call for people around the world to break their silence and fight for a free Palestine.
  • Chicago racist terror of 1919
    Abayomi Azikiwe
    Cultural Renaissance, Economic Crises and the Struggle Against Fascism, 1919-1945
    06 Mar 2024
    In the time between the two imperialist wars, the spirit and politics of Pan-Africanism grew. African Americans continued to organize and built movements to resist rising fascism.
  • Leaders of ECOWAS
    Tanupriya Singh
    ECOWAS Lifts Sanctions on Niger Weeks After Sahel States Announce Withdrawal From Bloc
    06 Mar 2024
    The West African trade bloc has lifted a majority of the sweeping sanctions it had imposed on Niger, including border closures and a freezing of state assets. The move followed soon after Niger, Mali…
  • Destroyed cars in Israel
    Bryce Greene
    Shielding US Public From Israeli Reports of Friendly Fire on October 7
    06 Mar 2024
    Following the Al-Aqsa flood, media reports blamed the Palestinian resistance for well over one thousand deaths. As the dust settles, reports have since emerged indicating that the IDF killed…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us