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

Cranes and Tents
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
05 Dec 2018
šŸ–Øļø Print Article
Stable working class neighborhoods are the bane of speculators, developers and capitalist politicians.
Stable working class neighborhoods are the bane of speculators, developers and capitalist politicians.

Lording over the landscape like giant
Insects sucking soul, blood, chocolate
into multi-colored mushrooms
Metastasizing citywide.
Officers ordering vacant storefronts,
lined up like soldiers, to make money,
while brothers with cupped hands
platoon on plastic crates at entrances to
$4-a-cup coffee shops with belligerent baristas.

Beneath fiery crimson skies,
afternoon freeways are fuming parking lots.
Capitalism’s poisoning water and air,
and ignorant exploiters don’t care!
Pyramids and huts; tuxes and tails,
unwashed butts—tents and jails.
First come the cranes—then the
Tents, skyrocketing mortgages—then the
Rents… money, money, money for military
Bases in far off places—but, it’s ā€œPie in the
sky,ā€ to demand affordable living spaces!

Basketball team’s outgrown The Town,
football team’s slipping off to Sin
City after slurping at the trough…
Capitalism’s poisoning water and air,
and ignorant exploiters don’t care!
Pyramids and huts; tuxes and tails,
unwashed butts—tents and jails.
First come the cranes—then the
Tents, skyrocketing mortgages—then the
Rents… money, money, money for military
Bases in far off places—but, it’s ā€œPie in the
sky,ā€ to demand affordable living spaces!

And we play dress-up in grown folks’ clothes—
Tiny red, white and blue stickers— pretending
we’re fixing it in 20 minutes… every 2-4 years …

 

Ā© 2018. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

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


More Stories


  • Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Ben Passmore’s Book, ā€œBlack Arms to Hold You Upā€
    17 Dec 2025
    In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer questions about their book. This week’s featured author is Ben Passmore. Passmore is the author of the ongoing comic book series Daygloayhole, as…
  • Charisse Burden-Stelly, PhD
    Your Anti-Communism Problem—and Mine
    17 Dec 2025
    ā€˜Anti-Communism Week’ is a legal blueprint for crushing dissent. By labeling social justice activism as terrorism and empowering a new national task force, the state is preparing for the most intense…
  • Jon Jeter
    Kenya’s President Attempts to Close Budget Gap by Selling Citizens’ Health Data to the U.S.
    17 Dec 2025
    Kenya is auctioning its sovereignty to foreign powers. The final item on the block is the genetic data of its own people.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    A People’s Orientation to the Praxis of People(s)-Centered Human Rights: Proposed Approach and Application
    17 Dec 2025
    The West's concept of human rights has always justified imperialism. The People(s)-Centered Human Rights framework offers a radical alternative—a practical tool for oppressed people to define their…
  • Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team
    BAP Backgrounder: U.S. Racist Immigration Policy Toward Haiti Reinforces Imperialism and Weakens Popular Sovereignty
    17 Dec 2025
    U.S. immigration policy is the domestic arm of its foreign policy. The attack on Haitian migrants is a direct consequence of Washington's ongoing war on Haiti's sovereignty, making their defense a…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us