It’s capitalism, baby…
Gravediggers feed hungry Hart
Island trenches plain pine coffins;
stacked three-high, they rest side
by side in solidarity.
For now, they share island real
estate with AIDS and1918 Flu fallen.
New York is not new to this.
Ask African Burial Ground
Ancestors—it’s capitalism, baby…
799 died today.
Tasered with temperatures of 103.5
and shortness of breath—
A bus driver, track-worker and a couple
of conductors I know on sight and speak
to, came down with chills. They’ve breathed
welding manganese, steel dust and diesel
fumes decades for New Yorkers—Yet, they
couldn’t be tested—it’s capitalism, baby…
What if they’d whispered Three Little Words?
Pleaded 12 times—instead of 11—like
Eric Garner as the long, white, tatted
arm of the law crushed his windpipe?
What if they’d pleaded, “I can’t Breathe…”
12—or even 13 times—would they’ve been
Tested, treated and alive today?
That’s not MTA’s concern. Bottom line,
liability, lawsuits are—it’s capitalism, baby…
Nurses slash garbage bags open—using them
as PPE/Personal Protection Equipment.
Docs reuse gloves and masks—multiple patients—
in the world’s ‘richest’ country—it’s capitalism, baby…
Hand sanitizer was $15 a bottle yesterday—
$50 today—if you can find it.Ventilators were
$25,000 yesterday—$45,000 today and climbing—
It’s capitalism, baby…
If water is life, hand-washing’s a lifesaver.
Unelected ‘emergency’ management cut
Detroit water off and poisoned pennywise
Flint’s—oh, please—it’s capitalism, baby…
San Francisco hotel rooms sit empty.
The unhoused “shelter in place” below
freeways; in overcrowded shelters and
on cold convention center floors; oh well—
it’s capitalism, baby…
Parasites “self-isolate” on swanky
Yachts, toasting tax-breaks looting
Labor’s fruits; sucking up shares,
senators, congress members and
Blood.
Leeches storm the Hamptons—hoarding—
greedily buying meat, frozen foods—filling
Extra McMansion freezers; While working-
class shoppers tussle over
Toilet tissue; or stand their ground in long
lines buying guns—it’s capitalism, baby…
Cars sob in food bank lines stamped ‘Insufficient
Funds’ a mile-long… While farmers plow perfect
cabbage heads and green beans back into black
soil. And ivory rivers swell from dairy farmers
dumping millions of gallons of milk in manure
pits. And chicken ‘processors’ smash 750,000
eggs a week—for Profit Omelet-obscene food fights—
it’s capitalism, baby…
“Return To Normal?” That Titanic sailed months ago—
it does seem, however, that it left ashore capitalism’s
grave-
diggers…
© 2020. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
1 %-Funded Rally Actors
Re-open America
as colonial settler
thugs
Opened it—oceans of
blood, rivers of tears…
Calling All Rally Actors—
Calling All Rally Actors
for psy-wars—for encores
from gun stores—ol’ hardcores
Gun-toting rally actors who ride or die—
Black Panther Party-types need not apply…
LIBERATE MICHIGAN!!
LIBERATE MINNESOTA!!
LIBERATE VIRGINIA!!
Boots on the ground—bone-
spurred by Boss Tweet who
believes Lee punked-out at
Appomattox—and bodies littering
Gettysburg were a Chinese Hoax!
Calling All Rally Actors—
Calling All Rally Actors
for psy-wars—for encores
from gun stores—ol’ hardcores
Gun-toting rally actors who ride or die—
Black Panther Party-types need not apply…
LIBERATE MICHIGAN!!
LIBERATE MINNESOTA!!
LIBERATE VIRGINIA!!
’Signature strike’ assemblies/senates—
Shock and Awe!
Build black sites in St.Paul—bases in Lansing!
Move the War House, Capitalist Hill and White
Supreme Court to Commonwealth Richmond!
Employ ‘enhanced interrogation techniques:’
waterboard unappreciative governors!
Calling All Rally Actors—
Calling All Rally Actors
for psy-wars—for encores
from gun stores—ol’ hardcores
Gun-toting rally actors who ride or die—
Black Panther Party-types need not apply…
LIBERATE MICHIGAN!!
LIBERATE MINNESOTA!!
LIBERATE VIRGINIA!!
Calling for a few good men
ground
down
by
Capitalism; thinking solidarity sucks;
“ The business of America is business—”
Profit over people—is as good as it gets…
Calling for a few good men who love the rich—
1%— The ‘Right to Work’ for them as nail salon
barbershop, tattoo parlor partisans!
As infected fighter Stuntmen. As confederate flag-
waving Extras—FOX-box talking points! As ’high
value targets,’ collateral damage in Harm’s Way!
Calling for a few good men lusting oilmen money,
Flowing like fracking fluid…
Calling All Rally Actors—
Calling All Rally Actors
for psy-wars—for encores
from gun stores—ol’ hardcores
Gun-toting rally actors who ride or die—
Black Panther Party-types need not apply…
LIBERATE MICHIGAN!!
LIBERATE MINNESOTA!!
LIBERATE VIRGINIA!!
Calling all Astroturf Tea Party Players—
Charlottesville Veterans Preferred—to
play
Rosa Parks
© 2020. Raymond Nat Turner, The T
Solidarity
I wash my hands a
thousand times a day.
As a masked man,
I’ve forgotten
the feel of my face.
Still, I speak to ‘strangers.’
Smiling with crinkly
corners of my eyes, I
Hug them with the
inflection of my voice…
© 2020. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
BAR’s poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com .
COMMENTS?
Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport
Or, you can comment by emailing us at [email protected]
In this week’s segment, we discuss the 80th anniversary of victory in Europe in World War II, and the disinformation that centers on the U.S.'s role and dismisses the pivotal Soviet role in that…
Roger McKenzie is the international editor of the UK-based Morning Star, the only English-language socialist daily newspaper in the world. He joins us from Oxford to discuss his new book, “The…
The late Bruce Dixon was a co-founder and managing editor of Black Agenda Report. In 2018, he provided this commentary entitled, "US Fake History of World War II Underlies Permanent Bipartisan…
Nadiah Alyafai is a member of the US Palestinian Community Network chapter in Chicago and she joins us to discuss why the public must be aware of the Nakba and the continuity of Palestinian…
Black people who are among the rich and famous garner praise and love, and so do those who are in distress. But concerns for the masses of people and their struggles are often missing.
