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

Dis-honest Broker (for my friend Farid)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
25 Oct 2023
🖨️ Print Article
Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Israel
Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Israel (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP)

 

Dis-honest Broker

(for my friend Farid)

 

Metallic music of shovels; Abrasions on bare hands
Digging, digging, digging through twisted bones and
busted bricks of buildings. To backpacks, blankets, baby
body parts to free tiny arms and legs emitting whispers…

Obese bulldozers munching homes and olive trees;
Settlers snacking on bones of the evicted;
Aquifer flooded with sea water and sewage are G-
Rated nightmares and matter not to NFL, NBA bi-partisans

Forked tongue, dis-honest broker, fluent in ancient language
Genocide
Trots tattered tropes for terror out. Swears another Offal Office
Oath on War House Bible—bathed in blood of 10s of millions—
Wounded Knee to Trail of Tears; Tulsa to Hiroshima; Korea to
Vietnam to Afghanistan…

Riddler/Joker—Dis-
honest broker: “You have a right to”
Be an aircraft carrier on the desert
Acting as a weapons lab conducting
Trade shows; Disguised as democracy
Acting as an apartheid state; Concealing
Third Reich real estate practices—Go on
Step on the gas—and
“Mow the grass!”

“You have a right to” quell them/Shell
them! Bombard them/boneyard them!
Snipe them/wipe them! Un-home them/Pogrom them!
Expel them/Farewell them!

“You have a right to” strangulate them/Annihilate them!
Bomb roads they’re instructed to travel— Let them eat
Lead and gravel!

“You have a right to” kill them One-a-Day… for years—
Daily… for decades… Until bloody bootprints become
Normal as “Ironclad!” Normal as Baghdad…
“You have a right to” 22 days of carnage; provided
you Madison Avenue it: “Operation Caste-Lead!”
“You have a right to” Step on the gas—and
“Mow the grass!“

“You have a right to” 51 days of slaughter—if
you market it as: “Operation Protective Edge!”
“You have a right to” Step on the gas—and
“Mow the grass!”

"You have a right to” Dr. Goebbels’ white phosphorus
prescriptions for human animals holding human shields;
Holding hostages; Holding hospital hideouts; Holding
House keys—for… 3/4 of a Century…

Š 2023. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

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 and PayPal.

Israel
Palestine
Joe Biden
Apartheid Israel
US Imperialism

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


Related Stories

x
Craig Mokhiber
No, Israel does not have ‘a right to exist.’ Quite the contrary, actually.
04 August 2026
"Unlike the Zionist claim that 'Israel has a right to exist,' my assertion is rooted in international law.
x
Gary Wilson
They came to Spain for work. Washington called it an invasion.
04 August 2026
"Israel and Washington use Ceuta and Melilla to attack Spain for naming the genocide in Gaza.
Nicaragua
Becca Renk Foster
Nicaragua to Raise Its Voice for Palestine in Another Landmark Case at the ICJ
04 August 2026
Against the backdrop of Israel’s renewed attacks on Palestine, the World Court is set to hold public hearings in Septembe
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Venezuela, Memory, and the Long Arc of U.S. Imperialism
29 July 2026
Memories of a sovereign Venezuela collide with the reality that it is now a U.S. vassal state.
Ramzy Baroud
The Spark in Tell: How a Village Resistance Disrupted Israel’s West Bank Strategy
29 July 2026
Palestinians have the right to defend themselves under international law and they exercised it in the town of Tell on the West Bank. 
Carlos AznĂĄrez
Zionist Expansionism in Latin America
22 July 2026
Free trade deals, water contracts, and military training programs are quietly binding one Latin American government after another to Tel Aviv.
Noah Hurowitz
Trump’s Sanctions Against the ICC Are Unconstitutional, Rights Groups Say
22 July 2026
The human rights groups’ suit came as the Trump administration vowed to destroy the International Criminal Court entirely.
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist , Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The White Supremacist Imperative on Violence: A Black Radical Perspective on the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination
15 July 2026
The U.S.-EU-NATO axis remains intact, and its commitment to militarism represents an existential threat to the world.
Hanna Eid
Sovereignty and Strategic Depth
08 July 2026
The U.S.
Booker Omole
Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s Legacy Will Outlive US Imperialism
08 July 2026
Statement on the Funeral of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei by the General Secretary, Booker Omole, Communist Party Marxist Kenya.

More Stories


  • Jon Jeter
    How the Democratic Party Committed Suicide by Biting the Black Hands That Feed It
    31 Jul 2024
    The Democratic Party dug its own grave decades ago when it began trying to siphon from the GOP by appealing to conservatives and ignoring the needs of its strong base of African American people.
  • Pan-African Community Action PACA 2568)
    Pan-African Community Action Condemns the U.S. Settler State for the Murder of Sonya Massey
    31 Jul 2024
    The murder of Sonya Massey by the Illinois police is a symptom of a larger, deeply rooted, systemic assault on Black and Brown working-class communities. The only way to protect the people and resist…
  • Cira Pascual Marquina
    Multipolarity, Internationalism and Tomorrow’s Elections in Venezuela: A Conversation with Carlos Ron (Part II)
    31 Jul 2024
    The Instituto Simón Bolívar president places Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election in the global context.
  • Malaika Jabali
    In Milwaukee, Many Black Voters Aren’t On Board With Either Party
    31 Jul 2024
    The city’s abstainers could determine who wins Wisconsin, a critical swing state, this November.
  • Philippe Rosenthal
    France in Africa: “ New Partnership Model ” and Revenge Projects
    31 Jul 2024
    Despite the well-known political instability of the Fifth Republic, caused by the results of the recent legislative elections, the continuity of Paris' military-political path in Africa seems…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us