By BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
Terror attacks against French civilians have become the excuse du jour for the US surveillance state, for ramping up drone murders of other civilians, and military boots on the ground everywhere from Syria to south Philly.
Weaponized Condolences of a Warfare State
By BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
Blood, guts, severed heads and limbs
litter rubble. Blood has not had time to
coagulate. Wall Street piranha cry
crocodile tears on terror. Opening bomb
bays, their “Hearts go out,” $110,000 a pop.
Job-creators of ruin, gift themselves another
War.
It could have been Port au Prince, Kinshasa,
Tripoli, Damascus, Baghdad, Boston, London,
NYC. But this time, it was The City of Lights.
Some of us listen to leaders without legs to
stand on, fooling fools and babies. We were
Briefly innocent; never naïve around shocking,
Awful carnage in our names—crimes against
Humanity…
The hospital bombing, Nobel Peace Prize-
winning war criminal cries anti-freeze tears.
Palestinians Feel the Bern of white phosphorus
in corporate catechism: “Yes, we can” seamlessly
wage endless war, and do regime “Change you
can believe in.” It’s still the New Amerikkkan Century
And a Golda-plated Iron Lady Rusts In Peace, waiting
on the wings of a Predator drone. She grows impatient
to Start smearing the paint—crimson, ivory, navy—
for War!
Electoral Lilliputians lost their minds and moral
compasses, trading organizing for orgasm with the
2nd Coming of Christ. They were once Anti-war
Activists. Now they’re just junkies with 7-year
itches—8-year hitches; eunuchs and nuns taking
Mule dung wafer vows of silence; worms, crawling
around searching for imaginary openings to ‘organize’
on the Commander’s watch.
The world can’t wait for them to become clean and
Sober!
The world can’t wait for them to quit organizing
Halloween parties. Parties dressing bogeymen on
elephants as the end of the world; War criminals
on mules as Mother Theresa, scaring out the vote;
Helping fuel the Wehrmacht with Fear!
Raymond Nat Turner © 2015 All Rights Reserved
Besides being Black Agenda Report's poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and accomplished performance artist. Find more of his work, and give your event an upsurge with the UpSurge Jazz Poetry Ensemble at http://www.upsurgejazz.com/
The International Criminal Court finally indicted Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, but this action is merely performative. If arrest warrants do not include war criminals like Joe…
Manning Marable reminds us that US fascism is institutional and normalized. The parallels of his 1981 essay with the present are obvious – US fascism remains ascendant.
The Washington Post’s latest anti-Eritrea propaganda demonizes Eritrean immigrants defending themselves in the West.
Annual climate gathering reflects divisions between the industrialized states and the Global South.
Glen Ford wrote many powerful essays, but his unflinching analysis of the history of the holiday we call Thanksgiving endures 20 years after he wrote it.
