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
Ralph Poynter was a pioneer in the fight against white supremacy, oppression, and injustice around the world. His voice and presence cannot be replicated.
Anti-Black racism and Zionism are two cornerstones of Harvard’s flawed foundation. We should mourn Claudine Gay’s tenure at Harvard because she was both a victim and an agent of white supremacy.
After Haiti gained independence in 1804 following a slave revolt, France threatened to invade and re-enslave the Haitian people if they did not pay compensation to French slave owners for their lost…
Civilian democratic forces are demanding inclusion in proposed discussions in Djibouti.
Thandisizwe Chimurenga is the author of the new book, Some of Us Are Brave, Volume I : Interviews and Conversations with Sistas on Life, Art and Struggle.
