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
We’re joined by Dr. Anthony Monteiro, a Duboisian scholar and founder of the Saturday Free School for Philosophy and Black Liberation. He joins us from Philadelphia to discuss Ibram X.
Dr. Jemima Pierre is a Black Agenda Report contributing editor and a Professor of Global Race in the Institute of Race, Gender, Sexuality and Social Justice (GRSJ) at the University of British…
We present excerpts of a press conference posted on the Hamas Telegram channel which explains the origins of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
Hassan El-Tayyab, of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, discusses securing congressional support for a cease fire between Israel and Hamas.
Kareem Crayton is senior director for voting and representation at the Brennan Center for Justice.
