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

Bloody hands of state
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
25 Dec 2014
🖨️ Print Article

Bloody hands of state

by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner

1. Armed and dangerous

Handcuffs of unity,

Tasers of truth, Glocks

Of justice, teargas of

Solidarity, walkie-talkies

Tuned to frequencies of

LOVE—young and strong,

Marching all night long, 135

Days and counting, turning up

Street heat, scorching Wall Street

Like Sherman’s march through Georgia

Our best chance for justice,

Our best chance for peace…

Young and strong, marching

All night long, Davids,

Outflanking Goliath ,

Sweeping streets, attracting

Anti-war, living -wage,

Climate justice and Occupy

Filings like a humongous magnet

170

Cities on moral

High ground in war for

Hearts and minds…

Young and strong, marching

All night long on search and

Destroy missions, uprooting,

Overturning, anything decayed

False, hypocritical, irrational—

Each desperate COINTELPRO

Blow to disrupt, misdirect

Otherwise neutralize young

Warriors, backfiring like

Hoopties on the Harbor/110

II. Giant with feet of clay

Forces for forced-feeding,

Waterboarding, Hellfire

Missile murder, for-

Closures, homelessness,

Joblessness, hunger and

Shuttered schools reign

Rubber-coated steel

Bullets, baton blows,

Absurd arrests and

Charges, flash-bang bombs

Goliath-like on Davids—

Rein flame-throwing FOX-

Box foot soldiers, grand-

Children of Goebbels,

Rein toxic Reich judge

Janine, warheads Hannity,

O’Reilly and Limbaugh,

High priests of torture

Urinating fire on heads

Of hay, blessing their

Bodies with fracking fluid …

The state’s bloody palm prints

Stain T-shirts, hashtags, astro-

Turf rallies, agent provocateurs’

Orange fingers of flame, blackening

Ferguson and leaving Oakland streets

The crunch of shattered glass…

The state’s bloody palm prints

Stain our psyches, crimson batik—

13 years of ‘mowing the grass’

Murdering millions of Iraqis,

Afghans, Pakistanis, Libyans,

Syrians, Somalis, Palestinians —

No wonder we welcome David!

III. MK Ultra?

Talking heads trotted out,

Tight formation, narrative

Neatly wrapped around

Neon trail and bio of a

Baltimore Oriole flying

North dropping sound-bite,

Mash-up, composite,

Caricature crumbs

Along the way —

Suspiciously Sirhan…

Why so close to astro-

Turf rally? Blue lives

Hashtag? Why those two?

Could this be de ja vu—

Another coup…?

Raymond Nat Turner © 2014 All Rights Reserved

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


More Stories


  • Alan MacLeod
    Rappers For Regime Change: How the CIA Recruits Hip Hop Artists Around the World
    28 Oct 2026
    The U.S. government has promoted rap artists to destabilize targeted governments around the world.
  • Ricardo Vaz
    Western Media Accept Trump’s Plundering of Venezuelan Oil as Business as Usual
    28 Oct 2026
    Venezuelanalysis editor Ricardo Vaz exposes how the media establishment presents no principled opposition to the imperialist predation of Venezuelan resources.
  • Timothy Pratt
    US seized American heir’s cellphone in violation of treaty agreement, lawyer says
    28 Oct 2026
    James ‘Fergie’ Chambers, in prison in Spain, has applied for asylum as the US seeks extradition over alleged "Hamas support." With Spain's help, Chambers has become a political prisoner of the US.
  • Geraldina Colotti
    Lula wins in Brazil, but the far right won’t back down
    28 Oct 2026
    Lula's narrow runoff victory over Flávio Bolsonaro preserved Brazil as one of the last bulwarks against the far right in Latin America, a victory achieved through extraordinary popular mobilization
  • 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 neo-liberal austerity, colonialism, and white supremacy. But first, we discuss a new report that reveals a 25% decline in…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us