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…?

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