by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner
The wakeful sleep of the 1% is
Haunted by long shadows of
Conscious soldiers, progeny
Of militant mass movements —
Disposable Killing Machines R US
by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner
12, 23, 32, 300, 3,000;
Long gun, handgun, back
Pack, Ryder rental truck;
Shopping mall, movie-theater,
Naval facility, army base—
A thousand to choose from—
D.C., VA, CT, CO, CA, Texas;
Aaron, Adam, James, Timothy,
Nidal, disposable killing machines…
Nightmares looped over
Murder manuals memorized,
Looped over recorded command voices,
Looped over clanging pots and pans
Piped through vents, driving
Pharma’s sleep deprivation
Psychotropic drug playthings mad!
Disposable killing machines
Sometime short-circuit, suffer
Insomnia, anxiety, depression
Hurting themselves with
Programming for hurting
“Bug splat,” “sand nigger” others
The wakeful sleep of the 1% is
Haunted by long shadows of
Conscious soldiers, progeny
Of militant mass movements —
Avatars of Aaron Alexis,
Christopher Dorner, Timothy
McVey and other disposable
Killing machines, morphing
Into Marilyn Buck, Geronimo
Ji-Jaga, John Brown action-
Figures, armed with semi-
Automatic Marxist analysis,
Weapon of mass instruction,
Trained to “drain the swamp”
Of its sulfur stench and war
Criminal curriculum, gassing minds…
Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com.
Raymond Nat Turner © 2013 All Rights Reserved
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This lecture was delivered on February 3, 2026, at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada) for the monthly series “Black History and the Project of Black Studies.”
