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

Reclaiming Our Time for the Planet
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
03 Nov 2021
🖨️ Print Article
Reclaiming Our Time for the Planet

                                                                    Reclaiming our time

                                                                       for the Planet…

 

Grand Canyon bathtub rings telling

us the Colorado River’s dropped over

150 feet. Twenty years of drought—And

A wildfire a week; A nor’easter; superstorm;

hurricane; tornado; typhoon; And

tsunami over blackened birds, slimy, gooey,

tar balled waters—obligatory oil spills over

Corporate propaganda cycles—A delicious

recipe for disaster…

Whisker-sized particulate matter’s winning

Air superiority in pumpkin skies. Skies

Bees buzzed decks from; Skies hummingbirds

and butterflies hung out in.

Skies crows dropped from, jamming with

pigeons and spying on stashing/noshing

squirrels. A place you could get a gallon of

unleaded water that smelled drinkable…

This was before Roundup Ready corporate

propaganda cycles ejaculating Satan’s sperm

into our aquifers. Before prioritizing our

Friends by stages/types of cancer they suffer…

No need for nuance here—let’s say it simply—

say it plainly:

the kettle’s been on the back burner whistling

Frantically for decades—Warning of capitalist

immolation…And the world can’t wait…

The world can’t wait…Bassackwards…

for 21st century technology to catch

up with 17th century ideology—can’t

wait in perpetuity on old

mush-mouthed men’s mumblings on markets—

Seventeenth century

catechisms covering 21st century climate crimes…

The world can’t wait…

for more inflated claptrap; more cleverly crafted

lies—more methane promises huffed and puffed—

Killing us softly with their carbon…

 

© 2021. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Former forklift driver/warehouse worker/janitor, Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet;  BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can Vote for his work at:  

GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-town-criers-big-tooth-fund

PayPal: paypal.me/towncrierRNT

 

Climate Change

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


Related Stories

Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
White Supremacy and Climate Change: A Sinister Symbiosis
19 August 2026
The climate movement will never be effective as long as it refuses to confront white supremacy within its own organizations and as a
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
Documents of Disaster and Conferences of Calamity: Rhetorical Questions, Questions of Rhetoric and the Transition  from Fossil Fuels
29 April 2026
The First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels produced a People's Declaration.
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
The EPA’s Zero Sum Game Surfaces a Dialectical Paradox That Should Be Celebrated, Not Decried
04 February 2026
The debate over the EPA's new math misses the point.
Abayomi Azikiwe, Black Agenda Report Contributor
COP29 Summit Marked by Acrimonious Debate Over Emissions and Finance
27 November 2024
Annual climate gathering reflects divisions between the industrialized states and the Global South.
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
If You Want to See White “Supremacy” at Work, Don’t go to a Trump Rally, Observe the Democrats’ Approach to Climate Change
29 May 2024
Despite the undeserved loyalty of Black people to the Democratic Party, lawmakers continue to push policy that ignores concerns about
Children near destroyed solar panels in Gaza
Melissa Garriga
Don’t Let Warmongers Greenwash their Ecocide this Earth Day
24 April 2024
The destruction of the environment and acceleration of the climate crisis happen silently under the veil of “national security,” despite t
Shasta people
Zach Frye
No Green For Go: How Settler-Colonialism Kills More Than Just People
27 March 2024
Settler colonialism has caused the destruction of indigenous lands around the world and, as a result, the environment in which we all live.
Flooding in Somalia
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Climate Profiteers Exploit Somali Suffering
20 December 2023
NGOs and other climate profiteers treat Somalia as a poster child for global warming.
COP 28 Logo
Abayomi Azikiwe
COP28 Summit Concludes with Contradictory Agreement
20 December 2023
Originally published in
Money for Weapons as the World Burns
Vijay Prashad
Money for Weapons as the World Burns
11 May 2022
$100 billion was pledged to assist the Global South amidst the climate change crisis but world wide defense spending now exceeds $2 trilli

More Stories


  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio May 10, 2024
    10 May 2024
    This week, we discuss a lawsuit filed by incarcerated people in Alabama, asking the state to end involuntary servitude and the crackdown on student protests, abortion rights, and a rogue…
  •  Coalition to March on the DNC
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    March on the DNC Will Center Palestine Solidarity
    10 May 2024
    We’re joined by Faayani Aboma Mijana and Hatem Abudayyeh. They discuss plans for mobilization during the Democratic National Convention and why it will focus on Palestine. 
  • Protest sign saying "prison labor = slave labor"
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Incarcerated Workers in Alabama File Lawsuit to End Involuntary Servitude
    10 May 2024
    Six incarcerated people in the state of Alabama have filed a lawsuit against their governor and the Commissioner of Corrections. Jessica Vosburgh with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which…
  • Political misfits
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    The State Crackdown on Dissent, Abortion Rights, and Congress Enforces Discipline on its Members
    10 May 2024
    Margaret Kimberley joined the Sputnik News program Political Misfits they discussed the crackdown on students demanding divestment from Israel, abortion rights, and how Congress enforces discipline…
  • Muslim student stands against NYPD
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Eric Adams and the NYPD Repress Dissent
    08 May 2024
    New York City Mayor Eric Adams may well be the very worst of the Black misleadership class. He takes great pleasure in supporting apartheid Israel and he conducted police raids and intelligence…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us