by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
For us living in the US, our poet reminds us, imperial atrocities are at worst collateral damage, and most often invisible. Only when they come into sight need we look away.... look away...
Look Away, Look Away....
by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
Rumbling bellies, parched throats,
numb Mother, stunned Father
crawl on scraped knees,
bleeding hands across
gold foil fragments of
diploma seals;
Across shards
of glass, pulverized
appliances, crushed
sheetrock, smoldering
furniture, shattered
North African dreams
and Mideast mornings;
They claw frantically
with laser precision
to muffled cries of
Their toddler
Their infant’s dead—
Say bonnet, booty and
bloody baby blanket,
where the window was—
Mothers Of All Bombs
do this to Other
Peoples’ Babies named
‘Collateral Damage—’
To pre-teens with poster-
plastered walls, and floors
mined with soccer shoes
and balls, below bookshelves
armed with sports stars,
magic tricks and insects
No hand-wringing, heart-
wrenching mili-second
mechanical sympathy,
like families with
nannies, playdates,
Thousand dollar strollers get
Every Tuesday—for
8 years—you trained
Yourselves to “…Look away…”
Orgasmic as your
Hero unleashed
Hellfire Missiles on
suspicious farmers
You’d “…Look away…”
Mesmerized by
Madison Avenue marketing:
“Yes, we can” and
Bottle Jim Jones Juice and
Deliver regime “Change
you can believe in:”
Massacres making
Washington and
Wall Street warlords more money
You’d “…Look away…”
Wet, cold Wiki-leaked
Reality irrelevant
in your rush to
“Feel the Bern,” climb the
Hill—tread denial—blind
behind Capitalist Hill’s latest liar
Spiking war profiteers’ shares
To beautiful
“Bombs bursting in air…
and rockets red glare” and
Hear campaign chants,
“Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs!”
Oh, how magnificent
it must feel to
“…Look away, look away…”
Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performance artist. Find much more of his work at http://ursurgejazz.com
The recent massacre in the Nuseirat refugee camp that killed over 200 Palestinians is being touted as a successful rescue mission by Israel and the United States.
A proposed New York training facility shows how establishment politicians only understand governance through policing.
The lawsuit against Alabama state officials, agencies, local governments, and private companies for their involvement in the prison labor program continues. Prisoners now must fight a wave of motions…
This week, we learn about how Black and Latinx communities in Buffalo have been targeted by a Black mayor and the police to raise city revenue. But first, a discussion about the recent South…
Lefika Chetty joins us to discuss the recent elections in South Africa, and the state of politics in the country.
