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

Piece Process
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
23 May 2018
🖨️ Print Article
Israeli sniper prepares to implement the piece process.
Israeli sniper prepares to implement the piece process.

Breathe, Relax, Aim, Sight, Squeeze
it’s a joy-stick; a video game to him
He has orders to “light up” anything that moves;
“Mow the grass, one blade at a time…” “One shot,
one kill…”
So far, he’s bagged a man on crutches, 3 disabled, 2 children

Azriel stalks victims in the valley of death; studies
them through his scope; taking careful aim; punching
tight little holes in heads and torsos—distant targets—
They’re sudden spray, pink haze floating above spots
where they stood. No regret. No sorrow for families…

A plume of black smoke from flaming tires curls
into his crosshairs, his snake eyes nesting in sand—
a nano second too late—
Another child’s head ‘clashes’
with a butterfly bullet from a
football field away—
Crimson skull fragments
explode from the grapefruit-sized exit wound;
Spent cartridges, his ‘kill brass,’ pile up in the
sand…
Ah, the rules of engagement
What’s bone, arteries—another amputated leg—
got to do with it/the piece process: shoot one man,
Terrify a thousand? Don’t ‘our’ finest train there?

poerty

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


Related Stories

Ready for the Roaring ‘20s?
BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
Ready for the Roaring ‘20s?
08 January 2020
This Orange Age outrage— Reich of the child’s cage Cancer at fourth stage— Rogue state’s rampage…

More Stories


  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Class Warfare and Socialist Resistance: Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela as Existential Threats to the US
    10 Nov 2021
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    EDITORIAL: Abyssinia’s War and What Comes Next. Marcus Garvey, January, 1937
    10 Nov 2021
    When Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, the Black World rallied in support and solidarity.
  • Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    On American Patriotism: A Marxist Polemic
    10 Nov 2021
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Abraham Wodaje Kebede on the Ground in Ethiopia
    10 Nov 2021
  • BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
    Build Back Better Street Heat- Shoe Leather Legislators-Pavement Policymakers
    10 Nov 2021
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us