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


  • Keith Davis, Jr. and Black Political Corruption
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Keith Davis, Jr. and Black Political Corruption
    18 Jan 2023
    Baltimore police continued to falsely accuse an innocent man when they shot and nearly killed him after the Freddie Gray uprisings. Prosecutors as always helped to carry out the dirty…
  • PAPER: The War is At Home, D.C. SCAR, 1991
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    PAPER: The War is At Home, D.C. SCAR, 1991
    18 Jan 2023
    Revisiting a 1991 statement against war from the D.C. Student Coalition against Apartheid and Racism.
  • The U.S. is Already Preparing for the Next War
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    The U.S. is Already Preparing for the Next War
    18 Jan 2023
    U.S. threats to China are very public and come straight from the horse's mouth of military brass, think tanks, and former officials. Wars may end in Afghanistan but continue in Ukraine or Taiwan.
  • For my Niece (and Me)
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    For my Niece (and Me)
    18 Jan 2023
                                                         
  •  BAR Book Forum: El Jones’s Book, “Abolitionist Intimacies”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: El Jones’s Book, “Abolitionist Intimacies”
    18 Jan 2023
    This week’s featured author is El Jones. Jones is a poet, journalist, professor and activist living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She teaches at Mount Saint Vincent University, where she was named the…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us