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


  • El Jones
    Disturbing the Peace
    26 Nov 2025
    El Jones presents the poem "Disturbing the Peace," written for the protest at the Halifax International Security Forum, November 22, 2025.
  • Roger D. Harris
    Venezuela Under Siege: A Hundred Deaths at Sea – Hundreds of Thousands by Sanctions
    26 Nov 2025
    Washington is targeting the Venezuelan people in an escalating regime-change offensive, combining open military violence with an economic siege that has already claimed thousands of lives.
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio November 21, 2025
    21 Nov 2025
    In this week’s segment, we discuss a march to support Mumia Abu Jamal and all political and elder prisoners. But first, we hear about the latest climate change conference, COP30, and the limits of…
  • Cop 30
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    COP30 and the Failure of the Climate Conference Process
    21 Nov 2025
    The latest United Nations climate change conference, COP30, recently took place in Belem, Brazil. A people’s counter summit was also held, attended by indigenous Brazilians, Afro-Descendants, and…
  • Mumia Abu Jamal
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    March for Mumia
    21 Nov 2025
    Beginning on November 28, a March for Mumia Abu Jamal and will begin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and end on December 9 at S.C.I. Mahanoy prison in Frackville, Pennsylvania, where Mumia is being…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us