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

How will we pay for it?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
12 Jan 2022
🖨️ Print Article
How will we pay for it?
M. Wuerker POLITICO Universal Uclick

                                                                                            How will we pay for it?

How will we pay for it?
How will we pay for it:
59 missile shooting spree—
$110, 000 a pop?
Mother Of All Bombs?
A boondoggle bomber?
800 bases in faraway places?
States with more warheads than congress members? A modern-medieval torture
chamber on foreign soil? A weapons lab disguised as an apartheid state?

How will we pay for it?
How will we pay for it:
Surgical strikes on hospitals—
renaming babies Collateral Damage?
Orders to “Light ‘em up!”?
Lethal gifts dropped on wedding parties?
‘Taking out’ other nations’ generals?
Swapping strongmen for wrong men?

How will we pay for it?
How will we pay for it:
Drinking water juiced with jet fuel?
Freedom to breathe blue-black air?
Fracking fluid flavored springs?
Freedom of fires gorging themselves year round?
Freedom of floods to wash away labor’s fruits?

It’s not neurosurgery or rocket science—
and I’m no genius but— I know-I know
I know-I know-I know-I know-I know-I know…
I know-I know-I know-I know-I know-I know…
Tents, tarps, cardboard mattresses—cancer,
Diabetes, tooth decay are one way we pay—
Feel free to fill in anything I’ve missed…
 

© 2022. 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

Military Industrial Complex

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


Related Stories

Biden has Money for War, but Not for the Poor
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
Biden has Money for War, but Not for the Poor
23 March 2022
Joe Biden and congress have plenty of money for the military industrial complex, but only austerity for the people.
US War Lobby Fuels Conflict in Russia, Ukraine, and Syria: Ex-Pentagon Advisor
Aaron Maté
US War Lobby Fuels Conflict in Russia, Ukraine, and Syria: Ex-Pentagon Advisor
12 January 2022
A former senior advisor at the Pentagon confirms what was obvious to those who pay attention.
Raytheon’s Raven caws “War—Evermore!” Not wind beneath Negroz wings…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Raytheon’s Raven caws “War—Evermore!” Not wind beneath Negroz wings…
29 September 2021
Afghan Crisis Must End America’s Empire of War, Corruption and Poverty
Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies  
Afghan Crisis Must End America’s Empire of War, Corruption and Poverty
01 September 2021
The U.S.

More Stories


  • About the Ray Wood 'Confession' 
    Zayid Muhammad
    About the Ray Wood 'Confession' 
    03 Mar 2021
    The Malcolm X Commemoration Committee speaks on Ray Wood’s deathbed 'non-confession' to crimes committed before and during the great leader’s assassination.
  • The Biden Administration Spent Black History Month Deporting Black Immigrants: Why Aren’t People in the Streets? 
    Tina Vásquez
    The Biden Administration Spent Black History Month Deporting Black Immigrants: Why Aren’t People in the Streets? 
    03 Mar 2021
    Black immigrants are among the most vulnerable and we always have a target on our back and it has been no different under Biden.
  • Freedom Rider: The Minimal Minimum Wage
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: The Minimal Minimum Wage
    03 Mar 2021
    Most Democrats either don’t want a minimum wage increase or are too afraid of bucking their party’s donor class.
  • Joe Biden: The Expect Nothing Presidency
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Joe Biden: The Expect Nothing Presidency
    03 Mar 2021
    Biden’s brand of American exceptionalism has run up against the general crisis of the U.S. imperialist order.
  • MANIFESTO: “The Crime of Being Born Black on American Soil”: Claudia Jones’s Statement Before Being Sentenced, February 2, 1953
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    MANIFESTO: “The Crime of Being Born Black on American Soil”: Claudia Jones’s Statement Before Being Sentenced, February 2, 1953
    03 Mar 2021
    Claudia Jones’s arrests and eventual deportation were part of the expansion of the US government’s Cold War attacks on immigrants—Black immigrants included—who were affiliated with the Communi
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us