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

Justice was served from Warfare States’ gaslit woks
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
29 Apr 2021
🖨️ Print Article
Justice was served from Warfare States’ gaslit woks
Justice was served from Warfare States’ gaslit woks

Justice was served
sweet and sour in pepper spray soup—tear-
gas gumbo—tears mixed with milk and milk
of magnesia in crimson curry sauce;
Served from warfare states’ woks on
beds of ‘rubber’ bullets/flash-bang grenades

Justice was served
on baton-bruised ribs; golfball-sized wounds;
contusions, abrasions—And platters of 

plastic cuffs, eyeballs, teeth, reconstructive
surgeries; rehabs on hunks of ‘less lethal’ lies…
Served on blistered feet, strained calves and quads

Justice was served 
class struggle-style—from Warfare States’ 
Gaslit woks—
Stir fry served from massive motion stirred
up from below, garnished by shoe leather-
sautéd streets over the planet…

Justice was served 
on shards of glass in street heat salad;
Served by bold, brave, creative young
Chefs—aged in organizing: Marching
months; succulent and simmering for
class-struggle…

Justice was served
from poison blue soil: world’s greatest purveyor
of violence—Served scooped, flipped, framed with
flimsy charges; Served from
Rotten Orchards—
One ‘bad apple’ at a time…

Justice was served
Sizzling Black bean sauce; rainbow chard; with
white chocolate dessert served by seasoned young
Chefs learning their craft: Smelling fishy five-sided 
solutions—culinary coercion—Young chefs learning
to rock the wok—with tantalizing takeout menus…

© 2021. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at comments@blackagendareport.com

poetry

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


Related Stories

Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Poem for Walter Rodney, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, 1981  
11 June 2025
“any where or world where there is love there is the sky and its blue free
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A few lines for the Poet Ojenke...
21 May 2025
RIP: Rise In Poetics to Ra
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Reflections after the June 12th March of Disarmament, Sonia Sanchez, 1982
18 December 2024
“I have come to you tonite not just for the stoppage
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Love My Black Job
11 September 2024
Love my Black Job— Black Student Union Job! Hired at L.A. City College As “The Peoples Poet!”
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Enemy of the Sun, Samih al-Qasim, 1970
29 May 2024
Read against the terrible incineration of Rafah today, this poem of resistance and refusal, by Pa
Image of Refaat Alareer sitting in a crowd of graduates
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: If I Must Die, Refaat Alareer, 2023
13 December 2023
Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, a martyr of zionist state genocidal violence, has left us with a tale of resistance and hope.
Protest for Palestine at the White House
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Trigger Warning
22 November 2023
Trigger Warning Palestine’s the Answer— What was the Question?
Another June 1
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Another June 1
07 June 2023
                                       
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
16 February 2022
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Our ‘democracy’
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Our ‘democracy’
23 July 2021
Shangri-La—untaxed, socially-distanced champagne- caviar, Cayman Island, yacht crowds who

More Stories


  • Defending Our Sovereignty: US Military Bases in Africa and the Future of African Union
    by the Socialist Movement of Ghana’s Research Group
    Defending Our Sovereignty: US Military Bases in Africa and the Future of African Union
    08 Jul 2021
    Neither the Organization of African Unity nor the African Union have been able to realize the two most important principles of pan-Africanism: political unity and territorial sovereignty.
  • BAR Book Forum: Jennifer Goett’s Book, “Black Autonomy”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Jennifer Goett’s Book, “Black Autonomy”
    08 Jul 2021
    The author examines postwar violence through the activism of Afro-Nicaraguan women and men from the Caribbean coast of the country.
  • BAR Book Forum: Adam Elliott-Cooper’s “Black Resistance to British Policing”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Adam Elliott-Cooper’s “Black Resistance to British Policing”
    08 Jul 2021
    Historically, most of Britain’s policing hasn’t taken place on the British mainland – it has taken place in its colonies.
  • Historian Michael Honey Recalls Martin Luther King’s Message of Economic Justice In New Book, “To The Promised Land”
    Peter Kelley
    Historian Michael Honey Recalls Martin Luther King’s Message of Economic Justice In New Book, “To The Promised Land”
    08 Jul 2021
    King said the best anti-poverty program is a union, where you can fight for your own agenda — somebody doesn’t have to hand it to you.
  • Escape as Resistance for Enslaved Women During the American Revolution
    Karen Cook Bell
    Escape as Resistance for Enslaved Women During the American Revolution
    08 Jul 2021
    Motherhood often served as a catalyst for attempted escape during the American Revolution. 
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us