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


  • Margaret Walker
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    INTERVIEW: The Black Nation interviews Margaret Walker, 1982
    31 Jan 2024
    Margaret Walker was an intellectual of the highest order. Her uncompromising critiques of Black art, Black leadership, and the US racist oligarchy are sorely needed today.
  • Corporate Coup
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Corporate Coup: Venezuela and the End of US Empire
    31 Jan 2024
    Anya Parampil’s book tells the story of US hybrid warfare on Venezuela and of the tectonic social and economic shifts reshaping the world today.
  • Bayard Rustin
    Jon Jeter
    Bayard Rustin, A Menace Not a Messiah
    31 Jan 2024
    The recent Obama-produced retelling of the life and work of Bayard Rustin is better judged by what it leaves out - his legacy of counterrevolutionary action designed to defang radical movements.
  • Kenyan High Court
    Booker Omole
    CPK Applauds High Court Ruling Against Kenyan Police Deployment in Haiti
    31 Jan 2024
    The International Department of the Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of Kenya issued a statement of support in response to the recent decision from the Kenyan High Court declaring…
  • Pastor
    Maya King
    Black Pastors Pressure Biden to Call for a Cease-Fire in Gaza
    31 Jan 2024
    Israel's genocide in Gaza is now a litmus test for Black voters, and clergy are warning Joe Biden that he risks losing their support as his approval rating continues to fall in an election year.…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us