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

Red Alert
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
14 Dec 2016
šŸ–Øļø Print Article

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Now that Democrats are practically out of office, corporate donors are sponsoring empty spectacles of their own design, including another Climate March.

Red Alert

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

A Love Supreme,

A Love Supreme…

For Mother Earth and

Her creatures, her gifts

A Love Supreme,

A Love Supreme…

Dangerous dance, lethal songs,

Powerful prayers—

From the four directions—

First Nations’ Spirit

Weapons of Mass Instruction

Amassing the world’s

Hearts and minds on the Cannonball…

A Love Supreme,

A Love Supreme…

For Mother Earth and

Her creatures, her gifts—

Water is life…

Capitalism death:

Profaning, poisoning, weaponizing water—

Greasy Gulf water wiping mussel, crab, shrimp out

brownish Flint water bearing brain-damaged babies

black Pennsylvania prison water causing

Cancer; and young inmates hair to fall out…

Calling all R2P People

Come in R2P People!

Calling all Sanctions People

Come in Sanctions People!

Calling all No-Fly Zone People

Come in No-Fly Zone People!

Calling all Blockade People

Come in Blockade People!

Where’s the hue and cry:

ā€œHe’s using chemical weapons—

Gassing, torturing his own people;

Cracking down on dissent, freedom

of speech, freedom of expression?

Where’s the tom-toms pulsing ā€œregime changeā€,

ā€œregime changeā€ ā€œregime changeā€ ā€œregime changeā€?

Calling all People’s Climate Marchers—

All 300,000 of you

Come in People’s Climate Marchers

Maybe you’re busy since Matthew hit Haiti—

Killing over a thousand?

Calling all People’s Climate Marchers—

All 300,000 of you

Come in People’s Climate Marchers—

Your Cochabamba moment flares up like

Ken Saro-Wiwa’s spirit in Ogoni water warriors

In Water Protectors fighting Flint

Terror on the Missouri, protecting our

Lifeblood 7 generations deep—

Needing a ā€˜surgeā€™ā€”ā€˜boots on the ground’

Money for fighting absurd arrests

Medical supplies for tending class-war wounds…

Fluent in Forked Tongue—the Drone Ranger declares

November ā€œNative American Monthā€ā€”morphing into

cross-dressing klansmen, reenacting hi-tech

Attacks taking down Occupy

Calling all People’s Climate Marchers—

All 300,000 of you

Come in People’s Climate Marchers:

come make me eat crow—make me a liar;

Make me apologize

for saying you were ā€˜white’ folks first—

Lovers of land, peoples, creatures last…

For saying the prison-industrial-complex was

Cool with you, if only inmates wore

Recycled rubber sneakers; orange jumpsuits of

Organic cotton; beatings with bamboo batons only

Make me apologize

For saying you were OK with

Empire if electric Humvees and tanks, and

Solar-powered aircraft carriers were deployed

Calling all People’s Climate Marchers—

All 300,000 of you

Come in People’s Climate Marchers:

Forgive me, for a few of you have gone—

From the four directions—

Smuggling Sitting Bull spirit salve, love balm, in

Eyes of Ida, hearts of Harriet, spines of John Brown

Tongues of Douglass—

Metal detectors, strip searches

Rarely detect…

Raymond Nat Turner Ā© 2016 All Rights Reserved

Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performance artist. find much mopre of his work at http://usspurgejazz.com

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


More Stories


  •  US Fakes ISIS Threat in Congo to Justify AFRICOM Presence
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    US Fakes ISIS Threat in Congo to Justify AFRICOM Presence
    18 May 2021
    The US continues to insist that ISIS is to blame for recent violence in the Congo, where six million people have died since 1996, despite the fact that hardly any Muslims reside in the mineral-rich
  •  October Tribunal to Probe US Crimes Against Humanity
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    October Tribunal to Probe US Crimes Against Humanity
    18 May 2021
    ā€œWe’re going to present expert witnesses to flush outā€ centuries of genocide and other US crimes before an International Tribunal on US Human Rights Abuses, said Jihad Abdulmumit,
  •  Israel Deliberately Provoked Violence
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Israel Deliberately Provoked Violence
    18 May 2021
    The bloodshed that has taken more than 200 Palestinian lives is the result of ā€œa planned provocation to feed the ultra-rightā€ in Israel, said Sara Flounders,  of the Internati
  • Freedom Rider: The End of Low Wage Work
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: The End of Low Wage Work
    12 May 2021
    The combination of unemployment and additional stimulus support has made staying home a better economic decision than working for peanuts under stressful conditions.
  • Democrats Give an ā€œAā€ Grade to Joe Biden’s Brand of Corporate Rule. Should the Left?
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Democrats Give an ā€œAā€ Grade to Joe Biden’s Brand of Corporate Rule. Should the Left?
    12 May 2021
    Biden’s policies thus far represent the bare minimum response of a social order mired in total decay.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us