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

SNAP elections?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
04 Sep 2024
🖨️ Print Article
Woman in grocery store

Pushing rattling shopping carts down supermarket aisles
They came up empty searching for okra, collard
Greens, and black-eyed peas. Hunting 50lb. bags of
Beans, rice— and tons of tortillas— Hecho de mano …

Rolling empty shopping carts down deserted ‘discount’
Market aisles, they came craving ice cream and fig bars—
Not Black Hawk Helicopters, Predator Drones and Hi-Mars!
They came for crackers and cheese—not an eradicated disease!

Pushing streamlined shopping carts down barren
Supermarket aisles they came looking to load
Paper towels and toilet tissue … Not 2,000 lb.
Bombs—                    busting babies and budgets!

Rolling empty shopping carts down ghostly ‘discount’
Market aisles— sticker shocked—Hellfire Missiles
$110,000 a pop! Frozen F-16s won’t fit in their freezers! And
Salads of shrapnel-shredded flesh of children aren’t appetizing …

Angry stomachs growling—faces questioning—
“When will we see SNAP elections?
Elections of sticker-shocked/check writer blocked citizens
Receiving SNAP?

Elections of citizen crusaders wrestling price-gougers each
Month … And somehow surviving …          Citizen crusaders
Feeding gargantuan grandchildren—with mothers of all appetites—
As grifters drop MOAB: Mother Of All Bombs for murderous sport!

“When will we see SNAP elections—with all their imperfections—
Electing citizen crusaders receiving SNAP? Firing bipartisan chefs
Shouting, “Ain’t nothin cookin here but hot Hunger; War; Fascism—
MAGAt-Microwave-style—or Democrat Crockpot-style: Order up!”

 

(SNAP refers to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program)

Š 2024. 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.

Working Class
Inflation
Elections
War and Empire

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


Related Stories

Jon Jeter
Stagflation Returns, Shining a Spotlight on the Federal Reserve’s War on the Working Class
06 August 2025
History exposes the Fed's inflation fight for what it truly is: a decades-long class war waged against working people under the guise of moneta
Jon Jeter
From Cadillac-Driving Welfare Queens to Xbox-Playing Slackers, the Oligarchs Vilify Others for Their Own Larceny
09 July 2025
America’s ruling class keeps inventing new boogeymen to disguise its endless war on workers, while wealth flows upward and capitalism’s collaps
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Did New Yorkers say, No Mo Cuomo; No Mo Turkey Trot with Papa Cop?
02 July 2025
Did New Yorkers say, No Mo Cuomo;
Jonathan Forney
7 Supreme Court Cases That Black Americans Should Track This Summer
11 June 2025
Issues before the high court range from health care access and citizenship to workplace discrimination and redistricting.
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
One Big Beautiful Bank Job!
28 May 2025
Masked. Armed to the teeth. Synchronized
Louisiana Workers Council
Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful’ Cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and More
28 May 2025
Following is a fact sheet about how Trump’s “big beautiful” budget bill cuts essential services and benefits for workers to give to the wealthy
Trump and Harris
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Corruption, Lies, Biden's Health and Trump's Victory
14 May 2025
The same corporate media talking heads who told us to ignore Biden’s failing health are now cashing in
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
DOGE— Department Of Grifter Enrichment
07 May 2025
“Empathy is the bane of western civilization.” 
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
March, March, March… (For Million Worker March and Brother Ray Quan)
30 April 2025
1. Dust dances on sunbeams streaming through busted eyes; Lunch bucket language no longer lingers
Jocelyn Figueroa
Working Homeless People: Laboring Without a Roof
23 April 2025
For millions, a job is no longer enough to afford housing—yet the myth that homeless people don’t work still dominates public opinion.

More Stories


  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Fascism Born in the Colonies, Not Europe
    05 Nov 2025
    Europe refined fascism in its colonies long before bringing the model home.
  • Adele Robichez , JosĂŠ Eduardo Bernardes , Larissa Bohrer
    Brazilian Lawmaker From the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement Demands Investigation of “Planned Massacre” That Left 121 Dead
    05 Nov 2025
    The lawmaker states that Governor Cláudio Castro’s operation was “a massacre carried out in secret” and calls for an independent forensic investigation.
  • Roger McKenzie
    The Devastation in Melissa’s Wake and the ‘new normal’
    05 Nov 2025
    Hurricanes might have natural causes, but the tragedy that follows is entirely human-made and a consequence of capitalist greed, asserts Roger McKenzie.
  • Michael F. Brown
    Trump Ambassador Pick Vows to Pressure South Africa Over Gaza Genocide Case
    05 Nov 2025
    The nomination of an ambassador to South Africa who vows to "pressure" the country over its Gaza case confirms that the U.S. considers the practice of following international law to be a punishable…
  • book
    Dylan Evans
    Book Review: The Sword and the Neck – Reading the al-Aqsa Flood by Yanis Iqbal
    05 Nov 2025
    Operation Al Aqsa Flood was immediately cast as unprovoked terrorism. This review examines a work that dares to reframe it as the inevitable act of a people pushed to the brink.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us