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

Blitzkrieg
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
08 Mar 2017
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Blows and kicks are raining thick and fast, though many miss their mark their mark. But the intention of the 45th president is plainly to take us somewhere we really don't want to go, in a hurry or at all. Are we prepared to resist?

Boss Tweet’s Blitzkrieg

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

I wake up in a cold sweat

Scrambling for the internet—

What damage has daily doses of Shock and awe—blitzkrieg—done?

What salvoes were let loose

while we slept?

How badly

Bombed is the social safety net?

What rights are left?

Is blitzkrieg a 140 character shtik—

Boss Tweet’s clever crafting; swift installation of Fascist framework, the Cheeto Bandito's handiwork?

Or, are unnamed players pullers of strings;

ALEC architects of orders and edicts—pens

Included—narcissist’s signature required?




Bless the left, left behind holding their noses…

Debating a Devil’s disciple, apprentice Führer

And lil’ fella, funny mustache, jackboots, stiff

Salutes; versus Brooks Bros. suits…

(They dig definitions:

“Overt terroristic dictatorship

most reactionary,

most chauvinistic

most imperialist elements

of finance capital…

establishment of

Fascism reflects inability

of the ruling capitalist class

to maintain power by

Usual ‘democratic’ methods”)

Are we there?

Or should we, unsuspecting

Frogs, wait in the water, in the pot on the

stove, while you ‘unpack’, nuance, contextualize

Complexities of class war waged by the 1%?

Are we there?

Or should we spend 2-4 yrs blood and

Treasure chasing corporate slogans

and longing for seats at the table—

When we’re on the menu?

Are we there?

Or is it only the offal office oozing orange pus—

Or the whole bloody, rotten, yellow-taped, white supreme court, capitalist hill crime scene—

Where thugs make the law as they break the law?

Are we there?

Or is there a method to Michigan’s madness:

Flint’s poisoned water/overthrown elected government;

Whirlpool’s cesspool—golf course coup in Benton Harbor;

Detroit under anti-democratic, corporate control?

Are we there?

Or should we continue passionate pleas to

Sociopaths—moral messages to cold-blooded

Killers; treatises, eloquent arguments to

Madmen and women water-boarding, bombing the world?

Are we there?

Or is it some new ‘Alt/post’ patriarchy—

From founding fathers, framers, doubling as

Murderers, torturers, land and wage thieves—

pussy grabbers of grandmothers, granddaughters?

Are we there?

Are we ready to have a conversation on Race?

Race to Resist and rid ourselves of corporate

Killers poisoning the planet’s water, air, food—

Torching Mother Earth—

Race to Unite in workplaces, schools, churches…

Training and organizing ourselves ASAP to

STOP

These mutha-fukkkas; or, perish as fools:

If this Race doesn’t quicken the pulse—

Check your embalming fluid…

Raymond Nat Turner Š 2017 All Rights Reserved

Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performing artist.

Find much more of his work at Http://upsurgejazz.com

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • illustration of women political figures
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    International Working Women's Day
    07 Mar 2025
    Participants in an International Working Women's Day webinar explain the importance of the day in building international solidarity.
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Liberals Want War in Ukraine, Trump Wants Peace in Ukraine, But All Agree on Death in Gaza
    05 Mar 2025
    Donald Trump’s efforts to normalize relations with Russia, and to end the fighting in the Ukraine proxy war are logical and sensible. But years of whipped up anti-Russia hatred make logical solutions…
  • Mary McLeod Bethune
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    DOCUMENT: My Last Will and Testament, Mary McLeod Bethune, 1955
    05 Mar 2025
    Mary McLeod Bethune’s testament to a good, ethical life.
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Commemorate Genocide against the People of DR Congo
    05 Mar 2025
    The Congolese Action Youth Platform (CAYP) is campaigning for the recognition of the Genocide against the people of DR Congo to be commemorated on August 2nd, the anniversary of Rwanda and Uganda’s…
  • Elon Musk
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Is this ‘Constructive Engagement' 2.0— Or, Freddo frontin’ for Heil tech Hitler?
    05 Mar 2025
    "Constructive Engagement 2.0— or Freddo frontin’ for heil-tech Hitler?" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us