Pentagon pimpin

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence

11 Nov 2026

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MONEY-MONEY-MONEY—MO-NEY…
MONEY-MONEY-MONEY—MO-NEY…
MONEY-MONEY-MONEY—MO-NEY…
War is the answer … What was the question?

Don’t I protect you from the Pacific?
Don’t I protect you from the Atlantic?
Don’t I protect you from Canadians
crossing our borders dealing drugs?
Don’t I protect you from Mexican murderers
and rapists on their way to work everyday?

Don’t I protect you from Al? Yeah, Al Qaeda!
Don’t I protect you from ISIS?
Don’t I protect you from Boko? Yeah, Boko Haram!
Don’t I protect you from the panda, the bear, the red sun?

Don’t I protect you from the Haitians, Hondurans and Guatemalans?
Don’t I protect you from Black Lives Matter, Antifa, the Palestinians,
Taliban and Pakis? And, didn’t I blow your mind that time I whacked
Bin for you, baby?

Weren’t you kinda sweet on the Drone Ranger when he blew in
from the Windy City with “Yes, we can and bottle Jim Jones Juice
for Regime Change you can believe in?”
And I caught you eyeballin’ McCain when he sang, “Bomb-bomb-
bomb — Bomb-bomb Iran…” And you thought Boss Tweet looked
“presidential” smokin’ that Iranian general, didn’t you, baby, didn’t you?

But I’ll liberate Kuwait for you. Build black sites and bases in far, far, far
away places, for you.
I’ll deploy spies, even tell big lies. Do disinformation and misinformation,
for you … Baby, I love you; and just because I’m sweet, I’ll give you a
cruise on the 7th Fleet.

Baby, that’s why you gotta get out there and get my money — by the 15th
of April.
Baby, that’s why you gotta keep my patriotic pockets lookin’ like they got
the Mumps!
Baby, you know, I’d do damn near anything in the world for you …
Just don’t go talkin’ that universal-single-payer-healthcare-affordable
housing-guaranteed income shit —
I’ll pimp-slap the taste out yo’ mouth — and kick you to the curb!!!!

Baby, them other players are all full of jive; I’ve proven my love
with the F-35. I’m your king and you’re my queen; I’ll skywrite
your name with an F-16. So, go get my money— love can wait —
Daddy’s gotta take care of his apartheid state!

I’d pivot without a leg to stand on, for you / I’d mobilize militias
and the joint command on, for you.
I’ll fight both day and night ’til the bitter end, for you / I’ll expend
every cent of the “Peace Dividend,” for you.

I’ll build a wall on the border, for you / Spill blood for a new world
order, for you.
I’ll buy the War House and Capitalist Hill, for you / I’ll make every
new war a bloody thrill, for you. I’ll kill and kill and kill, for you!

I’ll dig more mass graves, for you / I’ll oversee more slaves, for you.
I’ll overthrow Saddam Hussein / Smuggle Columbian cocaine, for you.
Darling, I’ll break all the rules, for you / Keep extracting fossil fuels, for you…
I’ll sing like Etta, “At Last,” for you / Even set off a nuclear blast, for you — oh baby!

I’ll protect our way of life, for you / Even create world strife, for you.
I’ll drop cluster bombs, for you / Bunker buster bombs, for you.
I’ll apply sanctions worldwide, for you / And even abide genocide, for you.
I’ll shout “U-S-A!” chants, for you / Bomb water plants, for you — oh baby!

I’ll destroy wildlife and coral reefs, for you / Even inflame old ethnic beefs,
for you.
I’ll do massacres, bombings and assassinations / You just keep sendin my
Subsidizations.
Baby, I spend more than the next ten combined spend /And pray to God
each night — that spending will never … end …

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.

Pentagon

Department of War

militarism

imperialism

Global South

terrorism

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