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

Hurricane Harvey and His Siblings…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
06 Sep 2017
🖨️ Print Article
  Hurricane Harvey and His Siblings…
Hurricane Harvey and His Siblings…

“We are family…”
Harvey, Ike, Matthew,
sisters Sandy,
Rita, Katrina
Sing four part harmony
top of their lungs
Watching rivers rise, waist-deep water
climb above confederate flag license plates,
climate-denier bumper stickers;
Watching mocha broth
Disappear pickup
trucks and gun racks
They’re doubling over
with devilish laughter
Mocking an orange piece of
pyrite and1% it represents:
“Pulling out of Paris?
Where’s your wall?
All options on the table?
How ‘bout‘Mother Of All Boats?’
Hey, Boss Tweet, wanna
grab some 135mph pussy?”

“ Love flyovers at
football games—how ‘bout
Harvey’s—enough clear beer
to fill NFL
stadiums like Dixie
Cups, a thousand times over?”

“Lone Star State? Wasn’t it
Mexico?
Don’t dig refugees?
How ‘bout evacuees?
Oppose Sanctuary Cities?
How ‘bout sheltering in
Mega-churches of
prosperity-pimps?
Biblical proportions?
Once every thousand
year events—annually?”

“Comfortable with the
Bulldozing of ‘other’ peoples’
Homes and olive trees, and
Bombing babies of ‘others?’
Love lethal ‘cocktails’
in executions?” “What if Harvey said
his ‘surgical strikes’
were aimed at ‘bad guys—‘
Exxon-Mobil State—
ECO-TERRORIST RACKETEERS
and sacrifice zones:
asthma alleys, cancer cul-de-sacs—
Pre-existing conditions?”

“What if Harvey claimed
Children, Women, Elders, Pets
were wrong place, wrong time
‘collateral damage,’
‘civilian casualties?’
What if he boasted,
‘A sadist sheriff
Can’t stop me…
59 missiles and
chocolate cake
Can’t stop me…
Bloated budgets for
Snooping, spying;
For militarized police,
Nukes, aircraft carriers,
bombers, boots on the ground;
For ‘extraordinary rendition,’
‘enhanced interrogation’
and ‘black sites’
Can’t stop me…
Told you I was comin’—
Mr. Muthafukkka—am
I a Chinese hoax,
or Bad Hombre—or
can you hear me now?”

Raymond Nat Turner © 2017 All Rights Reserved.

Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performing artist. Find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

poetry
post-Katrina

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


Related Stories

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Army of Artists (For My Friend Horace Silver)
17 December 2025
Harmony of a hug,Rhythm of a rose,Melody in the mirror
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
MrJoeSam’s Text Messages
12 June 2024
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR’s poet-in-residence, pays homage to San Francisco’s shipyard artist JoeSam who died peacefully on June 1, 2024, surroun
Raymond Nat Turner
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Dis-honest Broker
01 May 2024
"Dis-honest Broker" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence, recently performed at UpSurge!
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Raymond Nat Turner at the UpSurge Jazz Celebration
03 April 2024
 
Image of Refaat Alareer sitting in a crowd of graduates
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: If I Must Die, Refaat Alareer, 2023
13 December 2023
Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, a martyr of zionist state genocidal violence, has left us with a tale of resistance and hope.
Reese Piece…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Reese Piece…
15 April 2021
Salute to City of Angels’ son! He wrote, he wrote, he wrote And he wrote… Ramparts, The Progressive, The
First 100 Daze: A ‘new’ dance craze
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
First 100 Daze: A ‘new’ dance craze
27 January 2021
Everybody’s wild ‘bout this ‘new’ dance craze— this lewd, crude dance called “The 1st 100 Daze…”
mashing the state— Kristallnacht-style
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
mashing the state— Kristallnacht-style
20 January 2021
Kristallnacht came casting lead ballots, overthrowing Black elected officials and Massacring those that VOTED for them— 
This is what hypocrisy looks like…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
This is what hypocrisy looks like…
13 January 2021
“It's like writing history with lightning.“ — Woodrow Wilson on Birth of A Nation
Think…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Think…
06 January 2021
Think of peoples having the most tanks, the most drones, the most missiles, bombs, aircraft carriers, 

More Stories


  • A Quarter Century of a Western-backed War of Aggression Against the Congolese People
    Maurice Carney
    A Quarter Century of a Western-backed War of Aggression Against the Congolese People
    17 Jun 2022
    Rwanda and Uganda have carried out attacks against the Democratic Republic of Congo for the past 25 years. Their aggressions are carried out with the backing of the U.S. and European nations who aid…
  • Empire’s Fleeting Leadership in Its Yard
    Farooque Chowdhury
    Empire’s Fleeting Leadership in Its Yard
    16 Jun 2022
    The U.S. effort to control the narrative at the Summit of the Americas ended as a diplomatic and foreign policy disaster. The imperative to dominate blew up in the collective faces of the Biden…
  • The Problem with Juneteenth
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Problem with Juneteenth
    15 Jun 2022
    Juneteenth was a people's holiday with deep meaning for the descendants of enslaved people. But the declaration of an official federal holiday has turned it into an opportunity for corporate…
  • Hubert Harrison, Tribune of the People: Part Two, The Voice of Harlem Radicalism
    Sean I. Ahern
    Hubert Harrison, Tribune of the People: Part Two, The Voice of Harlem Radicalism
    15 Jun 2022
    Hubert Henry Harrison was one of the foremost Black socialist and nationalist thinkers of the early 20th century. He was known as "the father of Harlem radicalism." This is the second of of a…
  • EXCERPT: On the Pan-American Congress, José Martí, 1889
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    EXCERPT: On the Pan-American Congress, José Martí, 1889
    15 Jun 2022
    José Martí’s account of the 1889 Pan-American Congress offers lessons for last week’s failed Summit of the Americas.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us