by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner
Justice is served
A la Carte, chokehold-style, or
Fifty bullets, forty-one, or one
Or two well placed headshots
From killing-machine chefs
Justice is servedâŚ
by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner
I. 24-7, 365
Justice is served
Daily, carrot and stick,
A few bad apples,
From rotten orchards,
Iron fists beneath
Velvet glovesâŚ
â10-ringâ, powder-burned,
Point blank range, by thugs
Hopped up on thin blue lines of
âWhiteâ $upremacy, Vitamin S,
Nips & Nazi-false consciousness
Justice is served
Piping hot from âwar-bagsââ
âThrow-down gunsâ and dope
For frame-ups & shake-downsâ
Ramparts Restaurant and 77th
In L.A., Stonewall Jacksonâs Joint
In Ferguson, franchises in Philly,
Motown, Chitown, Albuquerque,
Oaktown, NOLA, NYC, nationwide
Justice is served
Rider, Viking, Cowboy, Klan-style
By CRASH, STRESS, SWAT chefsâ
Chef Siapano was called the
âFoot Doctorâ âcause he beat
âSuspectsâ feet so badly they
Couldnât walk West Oakland
Streets after a serving of his
Dish, Chef Vasquez was called
âChokerâ, Chicagoâs Chef Burge
Is famous for cigarette burned
Brown flesh, blackened testicle
Confession casseroleâPhillyâs
As famous for Frame-up Soup as
It is for Philly Cheese SteakâŚ
Justice is served
A la Carte, chokehold-style, or
Fifty bullets, forty-one, or one
Or two well placed headshots
From killing-machine chefsâ
Different dishes, same menu:
Iron Fist + Velvet Glove,
Speak softly, garnishing
Big Stick, Mike & Ike =
Good Cop/ Bad Copâ
Force teeming with deceptionâŚ
Justice is served
Twenty-four/seven
Chefs coming by tens,
Small hours of morning,
During deepest sleep cycles,
Kicking down doors, scrambling
Belongings, barking orders, jamming
Glocks to grandmothersâ heads, hog-
Tying 12 year-olds and taking ten year-
Olds away for 30 days because, allegedly,
A Snickers bar was stolenâŚ
Justice is served
Reversed buffet of fees and fines, of
Nickels and dimes, hearty potpourri of
War on poor youth and working peopleâ
Ears and eyes of snitches and spies, vulture-
Eyed poles, elephant-eared walls, Venus-fly-
Trap computers seizing keystrokes, expanding
Secret files, code names and campsâŚ
Justice is served
Whitewashed in stainless steel bowls
Throttling truth-tellers, town criers,
Whistleblowers with warmed over
Investigations, reheated hearings, testi-
Lying heard a hundred thousand times!
Justice is served
Like shriveled hors dâoeuvres by foundation-
Corporation wired, battery-powered preachers,
Pundits and operatives on mules with small
Carbon footprints, leading back to side-door
Servings at the Big House voting booths!
Justice is served
Heated slowly, clarified gently, like butter:
The STATE, said Marx, Engles and Lenin,
Is a âSpecial body of armed menâŚ
Police and standing armies,â backed up by
Courts, judges, prosecutors, prisons, legislators,
Bureaucrats, flunkeys and hangers-on that
Protect and serve
Looters who donât snatch diapers, beer,
Red Bull, cigars, 99 cents bags of chips,
Looters who donât grab wigs, weaves and
Extensions from Mom & Pop beauty shopsâŚ
II. âROUND THE WORLD
The STATE is a special body of armed menâ
Gunmen: SWAT, CRASH, STRESS, Savak,
Stasi, Gestapo, Tonton Macoute, Riders, SOBsâ
Sons of Bull, Sons of Beauregard, Sons of Byron
Standing armies backed by black sites, Abu Grahivs,
Atticas, Guantanamos, Angolas; San Quentins, Bagrams,
Courts, judges, prosecutors, attorney generals and
Alcohol, Geritol, protocol, hot air talk shops that:
Protect and serve
Looters snatching continents, countries, islands and
Cities, ask Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek
Ask Haitians, Hawaiians, Mexicans and CubansâŚ
Looters kidnapping and strong-arming sweat from Ibo,
Ashanti, Fanti, Fulani, Mandingo, Yoruba, Wolof, Hausa!
Looters grabbing coltan from the Congo, oil from Libya,
Nigeria and Iraq; gas from Afghanistan, bauxite from Haiti,
Diamonds from Azania; looters blowing off mountaintops,
Dumping coal dust in streams, looters mowing down ancient
Trees and snatching them like pickup sticks, looters leaving
Alaska a gooey, black loo, like they left the gulf!
The STATE is a special body of armed men to
Protect and serve
Looters snatching post offices, hospitals, schools
Museums, parks, waterâanything not nailed downâ
Marauding, low-life looters, like vampires in blood
Banks, sucking up pensions & 4O1ks; sub-prime
Looters with computers, predators in Brooks
Brothers suits, stealing homes, snatching
Generations of wealthâeven stealing lives of
Entire families in Palestineâvile person-
Hood lootersâŚmore hood than personâŚ
Looters too big to fail, looters too big to jail,
Though we know the muthafuckas Wall Street
Gang names: BP, Exxon, Countrywide, Wells-
Fargo, Bank of Amerikkka, Wal-Mart, Monsanto,
Aetna, Humana, Haliburton, Boeing, Raytheonâ
Cayman Island paymasters of blue torpedoes
The STATE
Protects and serves
Looters hiding behind rectangular rags,
Prayer books, skin shrouds, grabbing
Pesos, Euros, Rupees, Rand, Yen, dollars
Gushing from sweatshops, slippery, slimy
Slaughterhouse floors, dangerous mines,
Finger-eating machines, distended stomachs,
Dirty waterânot enough rice, corn, cooking
Oil, or fertile black soil to plow ⌠Looters
Smelling of sulfur in Gaza, the West Bank,
Mid-West Bank: Ferguson, Manila, Mexico City,
Citi Soeili, L.A., Bombay, Delhi, Bejing, Lagos,
Rio de Janiero, Johannesburg, Chicago, London,
New York, Santiago, Tegucigalpa, Teheran, ParisâŚ
III RIGHT TO REFUSE SERVICE
Lights blaring, music blasting, like rhythms of
Rifle butts smashing skullsâŚspecial bodies of
Armed men, sadists smelling of sulfur, like
Their bosses, snarling, growling, and sneering
Thousands of years measuring success in broken
Bodies and spiritsââbreakingâ resistanceâbreaking
Resistance at the wheel, drawing and quartering it,
Burning resistance at the stake, with cigarettes,
Tarring and feathering it, skinning it alive, thumb-
Screwing it away, stoning it, clubbing, caning, chopping
It away with axes and guillotines, raping it away, shocking
It away with electric chairs and car batteries wired to genitals,
Strangling resistance with nooses and garrotes, shooting it
With firing squads, death squads, Hellfire and Tomahawk Missiles,
Bombing it with Apache Helicopters and F-16 jets, poisoning it with
Potassium chloride and pentobarbital cocktailsâbut resistance is a
Savory, served seasonally, or year-round; served like shish kebabs
Blackened on bayonets, fiery flavor on shards of plate glass, shoe
Leather, leaflets, door-to-door, marches, mass meetings, boycotts,
Molotov Cocktails, picket signs, picket lines, sit-ins, teach-ins, a
Justice saladâ by any means necessaryâŚ
Raymond Nat Turner Š 2014 All Rights Reserved
This weekâs featured author is Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni. Dr. Ndlovu-Gatsheni is Chair of Epistemologies of the Global South, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Vice-Dean: Research, AfricaâŚ
This week, we interview Courtney Cox. Dr. Courtney M. Cox is an assistant professor in the Department of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon. Her research examines issuesâŚ
The prison system links corporate interests, the military industrial complex, and policing into a web of oppression impacting more than 2 million people in this country. The Mapping Project reportsâŚ
To move from 59 infant deaths out of every 1,000 live births to no infant deaths in the matter of a few decades is an extraordinary feat.
The western capitalist axis of domination is responsible for most of the world's crises. The crisis of legitimacy extends from the UK to Japan, and U.S. imperialism is involved in every newâŚ
