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

Peace Dividend
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
13 Feb 2013
🖨️ Print Article

by Raymond Nat Turner

General Dynamics, Northrup-
Grummond-Lockheed-Martin marionettes
Over-populating capitalist hill—
Pushing up shares on the NASDAQ?...

 

Peace Dividend
by Raymond Nat Turner

11/9: When the "Evil Empire"
Ended, warlords swore
There would be a
"Peace
Dividend," but

Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...

Cold war with old war?

Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...

Enemy of the month,

Threat of the week,
Operation of the day,
War around the world,
War around the clock—
War for evermore?

Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...

Surges of war profiteers
Soliciting no-bid contracts,
Like packs of pedophile
Priests, volunteering for
Blacked-out Boys Clubs?

Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...

Hearings to hear lies
Looped like capitalist
Politicians' promises, with
Pharmaceutical side effects—
Hearings asking questions
Answered already by bloody,
Broken, bodies of babies, their
Farmer fathers, mothers, their
Grandmothers, grandfathers and
Neighbors, all commodified as

Collateral damage?

Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...

Eternal terms of Strom Thurmond and
Scoop Jackson—the Senator from Boeing—
Disguised as Di-Fi down to her New York
Stock Exchange ticker, wig concealing
Her warhead, fresh fragrance of death,
Plutonium breath, from a mouth moving
Like other GE, General Dynamics, Northrup-
Grummond-Lockheed-Martin marionettes
Over-populating capitalist hill—
Pushing up shares on the NASDAQ?...

11/9: When the "Evil Empire"
Ended, warlords swore
There would be a
"Peace
Dividend," but

Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end...
Did it end... Did it end?...

 

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com.

Raymond Nat Turner (c) 2013 All Rights Reserved

 

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


More Stories


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Double Tap on Venezuela
    03 Dec 2025
    U.S. sanctions, violence, threats, and theft are war crimes waged against Venezuela for decades. A scandal about a “double tap” killing should not be the focus of attention.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: When to fight, when to care, Floyd Dunn, 1993
    03 Dec 2025
    “The [AIDS] epidemic continued to gobble up the first phase of us…”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki Stands with Sudan
    03 Dec 2025
    Eritrean President Isais Afwerki arrived in Port Sudan on November 29 to stand with General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan for the unity of Sudan.
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Reclaiming our time back from February 30th Fighters
    03 Dec 2025
    "Reclaiming our time back from February 30th Fighters" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Jon Jeter
    Everything Must Change: Roles Reversed as Western Imperialist’s Gory, Glory Days Come to an End
    03 Dec 2025
    Europe celebrated defeating fascism in 1945 but immediately resumed its colonial control of the Global South. Now, eighty years later, the West is bankrupt financially and morally and is discovering…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us