by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner
What is it about capitalist exploitation, cutthroat
Competition, alienation, isolation of a Warfare State
That drives men mad?
Weekly Mass Murders of a Warfare State
by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner
I.
A fatherâs fire engine red eyes flood
His pillow, mourning his dear daughter;
Another mother has failed for the fifteenth
Time at counting sheep as the sun comes
Up and her sonâs bed is still made and the
clock, and click of double-locks is unsynced
The Commander, The Drone Ranger, doesnât do
Tuesday shows live. He pre-records his play-
list of Golden Oldies for heavy rotation: âOur
Hearts and Prayers Go Out Waltz,â âSenseless
Violence Sonata,â âThe Gun Control Conga,â etc.
He has another play-list. A list of places to see and
people to kill. A play-list of smash hitsâTarantino
Shorts, sans N-wordâ shot weekly in Syria, Yemen,
Afghanistan, Iraq, then pitched softly, like Jel-Low
Puddin/Dr. Huxtabullshit
Warheads, weaponized chatterers of the head-fixing
Industry, act mystified, âat a loss to figure out what
Happened,â then fire fusillades of âgunmen,â âmad
men,â crazy men,â âderanged shootersâ with ârambling
manifestoesâ at 99%ers risking real questions like:
What homicidal-suicidal-side effects do shooters suffer
Popping Do-Woppish Chantix, Luvox, Pristig, Prozac
Anti-depressants? Do Big Pharma dope-dealers face
Liability?
What is it about capitalist exploitation, cutthroat
Competition, alienation, isolation of a Warfare State
That drives men mad?
Whatâs racism, sexism, classism, elitism, snobbism,
homophobia; No affordable housing, No free healthcare,
No free education, got to do with walking-woundedâ
cubicle casualties snapping?
And can we set our alarms, our calendars? Can we play
Numbers? 9,12, there, 26, 32, hereâto weekly mass
Murder in Amerikkkan malls, theaters, churches, classrooms, newsrooms,
boardrooms?
Business as usual in NYC, time refuses to waddle
with young men whose pants hang off their butts. It
Goosesteps double-time, in Brooks Brothers suits like
Wall Street gangstas on speedâŚ
pre-school Daily âNewsâ delights in show and tell of
How the latest shooter bothered with wig, shawl, shades,
six clips and three license plates.
When, really, blue uniform, badge, camouflage fatigues
and combat boots suffice, once killing pausesâŚ
Figures donât lie, but liars figureâŚDoes gunfire really
Kill 88 a day in the USA? Can Canadians, Aussies,
French, Brits, Japaneseâeven Germansâhoist foam
Fingers and chant U-S-A # 1? Would they compete in
Driving mad, drugging, jailing and killing their people?
II. In discussing this weekâs mass murder, mention
the colonial settler project called Amerikkkaâs a
Scorched earth Real Estate scam. And homicidal
Speculator/squatters like âOld Hickoryâ made
Mortgages of massacred men, women, children,
slaughtered buffalo, deer, burned crops, cooked
books and broken treatiesâoriginal shock doctrinesâ
Guaranteed by guerillas in the midst of Gatling guns,
carbines, musketsâŚ
They flipped mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes; serially
sold and resold Stolen land over and over again and
Tore down yellow tape, compromising crime scenes,
Erased memory of mass murder she wrote, and made
Lead final offers, forceps for
breech
birth of
a nationâŚ
Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com
Raymond Nat Turner Š 2015 All Rights Reserved
Shani Robinson taught in the Atlanta, Georgia public school system.
Dr. Nicole Price is the Forbes Books author of Spark The Heart: Engineering Empathy In Your Organization.
Nick Encalada-Malinowski is Director of the Civil Rights Union campaign at Vocal-NY.
The climate emergency won't end because of heartfelt pleas to the people and the interests who created the crisis. Ecocide will stop when capitalism ends.
To mark the last days of Black August, we reprint below Freedomwaysâ 1975 editorial about Joanne Little, a Black woman indicted for killing her white prison guard and would-be rapist.
