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

If all options are on the table…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
13 Feb 2019
🖨️ Print Article
If all options are on the table…
You mean ALL options on the table.... seriously???

If “all options are on the table”
Let’s hear filters usurping skull and
crossbones drinking water 400 times
before it flows from a single faucet
If “all options are on the table”
Let’s hear boots on the
ground and on ladders, meddling smoggy
skies with windmills and solar panels

If “all options are on the table”
Let’s hear screaming propaganda of
Saws, and chants of Hammers, connecting
2x4s— Overthrowing tents, sleeping bags,
cardboard mattresses metastasizing as
Terror beneath bridges, freeways and
on cold streets across the country

If “all options are on the table”
Let’s hear stock market-like chatter,
Humanitarian Intervention making
medical appointments for millions—Free—
Toppling infant mortality, cancer, heart
attacks, strokes— Coup d’ etat blockading
buckets of weaponized chicken; Sanctioning super-sized
sugary cannons of colored water; Overthrowing dictatorial
Colonels and Kings … Removing millions of obese,waddling
overweight, malnourished Americans from harm’s way

If “all options are on the table”
Let’s hear Regime Change squealing and
giggling from public school playgrounds
Surrounded by well-supplied, well-paid
Public Teachers flashing strobe light
smiles, seconding emotions of children
If “all options are on the table”
Let’s hear tellers counting currency
and ATMs belching backpay
at furloughed federal workers…
If “all options are on the table”
These are our appetizers… Otherwise, STFU
finger-pointing, posturing, ‘bout… ‘democracy!’

© 2019. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

poetry

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


More Stories


  • BAR Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Report October 23, 2026
    23 Oct 2026
    In this week’s segment, we hear about the ongoing uprising in France against austerity, neo-liberalism, colonialism, and white supremacy. But first, we will talk about a new report that shows a 25%…
  • CEPR
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Why Black Wealth Took a Nosedive
    23 Oct 2026
    The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) recently reported on Federal Reserve data that shows that Black Americans have lost 25% of their wealth between 2022 and 2025. Whites, Asians, and…
  • france
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    French Protests Against Neoliberal Austerity, Colonialism, and White Supremacy
    23 Oct 2026
    Bouna Mbaye is an activist, a member of the Pan-African League-Umoja, the Pan-African Brigade for Palestine, and the US Out of Africa Network.
  • Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Trayvon and White Madness
    21 Oct 2026
    As Black Agenda Report is poised to celebrate its 20th anniversary, we reprint Glen Ford's commentary on the killing of Trayvon Martin and the impunity provided to his killer in a criminal justice…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Democratic Party Still Hates the Left
    21 Oct 2026
    The Democratic Party is terrified of even small liberal reforms and will not abide left leaning democrats thwarting their plans for austerity and neoliberal orthodoxy.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us