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


  • What is Urgent and Necessary in Haiti
    Jean Saint-Vil
    What is Urgent and Necessary in Haiti
    14 Jun 2023
    The author asks CARICOM member states to support the Haitian people in their struggle for sovereignty.
  • Colombia: The Friends and Enemies of Petro
    Gustavo Bolívar
    Colombia: The Friends and Enemies of Petro
    14 Jun 2023
    Colombia's new president is popular with the people but beset by enemies. It is a common situation where the popular vote is not indicative of who really holds political power.
  • A Deadly Fight: Senegal’s Political Crisis Escalates After Repression of Protesters
    Tanupriya Singh
    A Deadly Fight: Senegal’s Political Crisis Escalates After Repression of Protesters
    14 Jun 2023
    At least 16 people were killed after protests broke out in Senegal following the sentencing of leading opposition figure Ousmane Sonko to two years in prison. Mass public unrest has grown against…
  • Anniversary Report: Six-Day War, Democratic Republic of The Congo
    Friends of the Congo
    Anniversary Report: Six-Day War, Democratic Republic of The Congo
    14 Jun 2023
    Uganda and Rwanda began their incursions into the Democratic Republic of Congo 23 years ago. Full reparations to victims have not been paid and the two invader countries still act with impunity.
  • Second Session of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Second Session of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent
    09 Jun 2023
    Tunde Osazua is Outreach Coordinator for Black Alliance for Peace and a civil society representative in the UN Permanent Forum on People of African D
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us