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

Bloody hands of state
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
25 Dec 2014
🖨️ Print Article

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

LOVE—young and strong,

Marching all night long, 135

Days and counting, turning up

Street heat, scorching Wall Street

Like Sherman’s march through Georgia

Our best chance for justice,

Our best chance for peace…

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 minds…

Young and strong, marching

All night long on search and

Destroy missions, uprooting,

Overturning, anything decayed

False, hypocritical, irrational—

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 Davids—

Rein flame-throwing FOX-

Box foot soldiers, grand-

Children of Goebbels,

Rein toxic Reich judge

Janine, warheads Hannity,

O’Reilly and Limbaugh,

High priests of torture

Urinating fire on heads

Of hay, blessing their

Bodies with fracking fluid …

The state’s bloody palm prints

Stain T-shirts, hashtags, astro-

Turf rallies, agent provocateurs’

Orange fingers of flame, blackening

Ferguson and leaving Oakland streets

The crunch of shattered glass…

The state’s bloody palm prints

Stain our psyches, crimson batik—

13 years of ‘mowing the grass’

Murdering millions of Iraqis,

Afghans, Pakistanis, Libyans,

Syrians, Somalis, Palestinians —

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 —

Suspiciously Sirhan…

Why so close to astro-

Turf rally? Blue lives

Hashtag? Why those two?

Could this be de ja vu—

Another coup…?

Raymond Nat Turner © 2014 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


  • Essam Elkorghli
    Syria’s Fall and Anti-Imperialist Lessons
    18 Dec 2024
    Similar to a predator realizing it is losing a fight and is reaching its end, the U.S. is lashing out and attempting to deepen its claws into subjugated nations like Syria, which just experienced a…
  • Hadya Al Alawi
    In Full: Former Syrian President Bashar Al Assad's First Comments Since Fall of Regime
    18 Dec 2024
    For the first time since his departure from Syria, Bashir Al Assad shared a statement detailing the series of events which led to US backed regime change against his country.
  • Krys Cerisier
    COP29 Contradiction and the Climate
    18 Dec 2024
    Journalist Krys Cerisier attended the COP29 climate conference, where they reported and conducted interviews with activists from around the world demanding funding for climate solutions from the…
  • Clau O'Brien Moscoso
    Black Agenda Report Interview with Former Bolivian President Evo Morales
    18 Dec 2024
    The recent attempted assassination of Evo Morales, former President of Bolivia, is part of a larger attempt by the U.S. to strengthen its control over the natural resources of the region. Clau O…
  • Black Alliance For Peace
    The Biden Administration Fails to Win Imprisonment of the Uhuru 3
    18 Dec 2024
    The U.S. sought to once again target Black radical forces, by charging violations of the Foreign Agent Registration Act. The Uhuru 3 were acquitted of those charges but convicted under the…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us