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

Camera and Pen
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
18 May 2022
Camera and Pen
A mural dedicated to Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the streets of Gaza. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

                                                                                              Camera and Pen  

                                                                      (for Shireen Abu Aqleh and all truth-tellers)

                                                                “I pray you’ll be our eyes/And watch us where we go/

                                                                   And help us to be wise/In times we don’t know…”  

                                                                            —David Foster; Carole Bayer Sager

I.

New world’s birthing, crowning; Laboring
frantically— Truth-tellers, whistleblowers,
journalists— its fearless
Midwifes.

Warning us: The world can’t wait… Cannot sustain
Unsustainable warfare states
Warning us: Stretch stiff, atrophying dream muscles—
Seek antidotes for lethal circuses of strongmen, fat-cats,
Warlords, war-profiteers, bloodthirsty jackals, slimy
fossil Fools…

Our precious truth-tellers, whistleblowers, journalists hurl
themselves in crosshairs of snipers’ scopes. Close
distances between brains and hearts and assassins’
silencers.

Offer up loins, livers, guts to embassy butchers. Sip tea
with a little poison so that we may know… “What’s Goin’
On?”

So that we may know…precious truth-tellers, whistleblowers,
journalists…Never know when two men on motorcycle arrive,
Making good on thousands of threats. Never know when the
elevator door opens for the last time…

Camera and pen original sin—punishable by death— 55
slaughtered south of the border…And 46 slaughtered by
apartheid state agents…And 20 by czarist
carnage…And…

Silence: the sound of gangster states. Darkness: their view.
We ‘know' what they tell us of Desert Shield. Desert
Storm; Special Military Operation; mowing the grass; Cast
Lead;Iraqi Freedom—And other Orwellian operations
Mengele medicine men secretly perform on peace-loving
peoples…

II.

Jesus may have had his eye on the sparrow; but the 20yr old’s
Eye is on the glass.
He sees the world through his scope. She’s math.Wind. A dot.
The raid her trap. He watches; waiting in sand with rifle nick
named “Gritty Golda.”

Loner. Few friends. Below average kid. 8 weeks of sniper school.
Robot programmed to hate; to kill. Several weeks more of precision
shooting. 100 meters. 200 meters. A mile or more… Attention to
detail.

Enemy—not sister; niece; aunt; daughter; Mother—appears in his cross
hairs. Feminine neckline between helmet and vest. Two second flight—
crimson aerosol— “Without warning, without remorse…” as he was
Taught. Doing his job. Following orders.…His 54th confirmed kill.
“Thank you for your service…”

© 2022. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Palestine
Shireen Abu Akleh

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


Related Stories

Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration
Historic Genocide Case Heard in Barbados Supreme Court: Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration Demands Accountability Over Gaza Atrocities
09 July 2025
Barbados’ Supreme Court is now at the center of a historic genocide case against Israel, as Caribbean activists demand their government sever t
Black Alliance For Peace
FIFA and IOC Must Ban the United States and Israel from Hosting or Participating in International Sporting Events
02 July 2025
With an anticipated tens of thousands of international travelers for the World Cup and the Olympic Games, U.S.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: The Beirut Jokebook, June Jordan, 1982
25 June 2025
“What did the Arab lady say to the Israeli tank?”
x
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
The Tactical Failure of Israel/U.S. Attacks on Iran Is Leading Both to a Strategic Disaster
25 June 2025
The U.S.
21st Century Wire Global Affairs
HARVARD REPORT: The Hidden Numbers Behind Gaza’s Real Death Toll
25 June 2025
A recent report prepared by Garb Yaakov, a Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, and published on The President & Fell
Palestine Chronicle Staff
Aid Queue Massacres Continue in Gaza as UN Warns of Mass Starvation
18 June 2025
Israeli occupation forces shot and killed several Palestinians on Sunday morning across various regions of the Gaza Strip, as the humanitarian
Nora Barrows-Friedman
US and Israel Turn “Aid” Centers Into Slaughter Zones
11 June 2025
Nowhere is safe in Gaza.
Palestine Chronicle Staff
Another Massacre at Rafah Aid Center as Gaza Death Toll Mounts
04 June 2025
Gaza health officials report mass casualties as Israeli forces shell humanitarian aid distribution points.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: The Intellectual Origins of Imperialism and Zionism, Edward Said, 1977
28 May 2025
“In theory and in practice, then, Zionism is a degraded repetition of Europ
Brett Wilkins
Video Shows Girl Trying to Escape Inferno as Gaza Family 'Burned Alive' in Israeli Massacre
28 May 2025
The story of Ward Al-Sheikh Khalil is a horrifying reminder of the human cost of Israel’s war on Gaza.

More Stories


  • Maurice Carney
    Donald Trump’s Congo Venture: A Scramble for Minerals Under the Guise of Peace
    02 Jul 2025
    Trump’s ‘peace deal’ between Rwanda and the DRC is a corporate resource grab disguised as diplomacy, rewarding Rwandan war crimes while U.S. investors stake claims to Congo’s coltan mines.
  • Hanna Eid
    Mariategui and American Labor
    02 Jul 2025
    Capitalism’s accelerating crises demand a pan-American labor revolt against Trump’s plundering, bipartisan imperialism, and the neoliberal NAFTA. José Carlos Mariátegui’s century-old warnings are…
  • Essam Elkorghli , Matteo Capasso
    Fabricating Enemies in Times of Decline: NATO 2025 Summit
    02 Jul 2025
    The 2025 NATO summit exposed a dying empire escalating wars and austerity to hide its collapse while backing genocide in Gaza and illegal attacks worldwide.
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Did New Yorkers say, No Mo Cuomo; No Mo Turkey Trot with Papa Cop?
    02 Jul 2025
    "Did New Yorkers say, No Mo Cuomo; No Mo Turkey Trot with Papa Cop?" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Terrible Origins of July 4th
    02 Jul 2025
    The causes of the July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence are rarely taught in this country. The American colonists chafed under British rules limiting their settlements and feared they would end…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us