Bloody hands of state
by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner
1. Armed and dangerous
Handcuffs of unity,
Tasers of truth, Glocks
Of justice, teargas of
Solidarity, walkie-talkies
Tuned to frequencies of
LOVEāyoung and strong,
Marching all night long, 135
Days and counting, turning up
Street heat, scorching Wall Street
Like Shermanās march through Georgia
Our best chance for justice,
Our best chance for peaceā¦
Young and strong, marching
All night long, Davids,
Outflanking Goliath ,
Sweeping streets, attracting
Anti-war, living -wage,
Climate justice and Occupy
Filings like a humongous magnet
170
Cities on moral
High ground in war for
Hearts and mindsā¦
Young and strong, marching
All night long on search and
Destroy missions, uprooting,
Overturning, anything decayed
False, hypocritical, irrationalā
Each desperate COINTELPRO
Blow to disrupt, misdirect
Otherwise neutralize young
Warriors, backfiring like
Hoopties on the Harbor/110
II. Giant with feet of clay
Forces for forced-feeding,
Waterboarding, Hellfire
Missile murder, for-
Closures, homelessness,
Joblessness, hunger and
Shuttered schools reign
Rubber-coated steel
Bullets, baton blows,
Absurd arrests and
Charges, flash-bang bombs
Goliath-like on Davidsā
Rein flame-throwing FOX-
Box foot soldiers, grand-
Children of Goebbels,
Rein toxic Reich judge
Janine, warheads Hannity,
OāReilly and Limbaugh,
High priests of torture
Urinating fire on heads
Of hay, blessing their
Bodies with fracking fluid ā¦
The stateās bloody palm prints
Stain T-shirts, hashtags, astro-
Turf rallies, agent provocateursā
Orange fingers of flame, blackening
Ferguson and leaving Oakland streets
The crunch of shattered glassā¦
The stateās bloody palm prints
Stain our psyches, crimson batikā
13 years of āmowing the grassā
Murdering millions of Iraqis,
Afghans, Pakistanis, Libyans,
Syrians, Somalis, Palestinians ā
No wonder we welcome David!
III. MK Ultra?
Talking heads trotted out,
Tight formation, narrative
Neatly wrapped around
Neon trail and bio of a
Baltimore Oriole flying
North dropping sound-bite,
Mash-up, composite,
Caricature crumbs
Along the way ā
Suspiciously Sirhanā¦
Why so close to astro-
Turf rally? Blue lives
Hashtag? Why those two?
Could this be de ja vuā
Another coupā¦?
Raymond Nat Turner Ā© 2014 All Rights Reserved
With the ritualistic murder of George Floyd by the occupation forces referred to as the police that roam the streets and barrios of the Black and Brown colonized communities in the United States, theā¦
As workers across Africa face growing challenges, the leadership of the African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation remains crucial in the fight for labor rights andā¦
A bankrupt liberal class signed on to the Zionist witch hunt against supposed antisemites, refused to condemn Israel for its genocide and in the process gave weapons to itsā¦
The story of Ward Al-Sheikh Khalil is a horrifying reminder of the human cost of Israelās war on Gaza. As thousands of Palestinian children face death, the world must confront the devastatingā¦
Fighting apartheid in the Dominican Republic is essential to achieving redress for people of African descent in that country.
