by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
Why does San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick choose to sit when the Star Spangled Banner is played before football games? Evidently he is one of many who know the real intention and import behind those bombs bursting in air...
Anthem of Banksters & War Profiteers…
by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
“I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.”
—Marine General Smedley Butler at his retirement, 1933
I.
No Iroquois or Seminole National Anthem,
No Hawaiian or Mexican National Anthem,
Before bombers fly over stadiums schools and
social services were sacrificed for on altars of austerity;
No Ohlone or Navajo National Anthem,
No Iroquois or Seminole National Anthem,
No Hawaiian or Mexican National Anthem,
Before rockets red glare/bombs bursting in air
Over Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Bosnia, Libya,
Panama, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen…and
Others, soon to be announced…
II.
The bleeding baby with blown off arms and stumps for legs
Dies in a ‘surgically struck’ hospital while you drain kegs?
Commander’s quarterback, bloody band wrapping his wrist,
Running old red zone, war-profiteer plays from his kill list?
Are other peoples’ children ‘collateral damage expendable—
Like leftovers lost when your fridge became undependable?
Why’s the fight for ‘our freedom’ usually where there’s oil?
Why’s it where mineral wealth’s buried beneath foreign soil?
How about freedom fighting without tanks, planes and boats—
Freeing: Fitzgerald, Peltier, Gilbert, Bell, Jamal, Shoatz…?
Ain’t ‘Incarceration Nation’ Slave State, by its other name—
Ain’t it the darker side of a barbaric, brain-damaging game?
Black players: interception, sack, fumble, loss from N-word
Inches from lynching by the intoxicated mob, the racist herd—
Of Hitler-loving, hair-trigger thugs, masquerading as fans…
Always seconds away from true team colors of their klan’s!
Raymond Nat Turner © 2016 All Rights Reserved
Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performance artist. Find more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.
The late Madeleine Albright was the first female Secretary of State. Her actions in office repeated the U.S. imperative to interfere in the affairs of other countries and resulted in the deaths of…
…
Socialists, anti-imperialists, anti-war activists, Black radicals, and other independent alternative voices who challenge mainstream media and its political culture are being explicitly targeted by…
This week, we interview Samantha N. Sheppard. Samantha N. Sheppard is an associate professor of cinema and media studies in the Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University. She is…
This week’s featured scholar is Sara-Maria Sorentino. Sorentino is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Gender and Race Studies at the University of Alabama. Her article is “Mistresses as…
