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


  •  Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 4, 2021
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 4, 2021
    05 Jan 2021
    Pandemic Reveals Crisis of US Imperialism
  •  AFRICOM Causes Humanitarian Crises on Two Continents
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    AFRICOM Causes Humanitarian Crises on Two Continents
    05 Jan 2021
    Under the guise of helping fight the Boko Haram, the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) has helped the French-speaking West African government of Cameroon wage war against its English-speaking popula
  •  Only a “Transformational” Electoral Politics is Useful
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Only a “Transformational” Electoral Politics is Useful
    05 Jan 2021
    Ajamu Baraka, national organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace and 2016 Green Party vice presidential candidate, said electoral politics should be treated as a “strategic questio
  •  Pandemic Reveals Crisis of US Imperialism
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Pandemic Reveals Crisis of US Imperialism
    05 Jan 2021
    “I think what we are looking at is a severely wounded, crippled US imperialism as the chief hegemon of world capitalism,” said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black Is Back Coalit
  • South African Police More Lethal Than US Cops
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    South African Police More Lethal Than US Cops
    05 Jan 2021
    “South African police kill between two and three times as many people as US police do, per capita,” said Paul Clarke, a doctoral candidate in African and American Studies who has d
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us