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

How will we pay for it?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
12 Jan 2022
🖨️ Print Article
How will we pay for it?
M. Wuerker POLITICO Universal Uclick

                                                                                            How will we pay for it?

How will we pay for it?
How will we pay for it:
59 missile shooting spree—
$110, 000 a pop?
Mother Of All Bombs?
A boondoggle bomber?
800 bases in faraway places?
States with more warheads than congress members? A modern-medieval torture
chamber on foreign soil? A weapons lab disguised as an apartheid state?

How will we pay for it?
How will we pay for it:
Surgical strikes on hospitals—
renaming babies Collateral Damage?
Orders to “Light ‘em up!”?
Lethal gifts dropped on wedding parties?
‘Taking out’ other nations’ generals?
Swapping strongmen for wrong men?

How will we pay for it?
How will we pay for it:
Drinking water juiced with jet fuel?
Freedom to breathe blue-black air?
Fracking fluid flavored springs?
Freedom of fires gorging themselves year round?
Freedom of floods to wash away labor’s fruits?

It’s not neurosurgery or rocket science—
and I’m no genius but— I know-I know
I know-I know-I know-I know-I know-I know…
I know-I know-I know-I know-I know-I know…
Tents, tarps, cardboard mattresses—cancer,
Diabetes, tooth decay are one way we pay—
Feel free to fill in anything I’ve missed…
 

© 2022. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Former forklift driver/warehouse worker/janitor, Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet;  BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can Vote for his work at:  

GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-town-criers-big-tooth-fund

PayPal: paypal.me/towncrierRNT

Military Industrial Complex

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


Related Stories

Biden has Money for War, but Not for the Poor
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
Biden has Money for War, but Not for the Poor
23 March 2022
Joe Biden and congress have plenty of money for the military industrial complex, but only austerity for the people.
US War Lobby Fuels Conflict in Russia, Ukraine, and Syria: Ex-Pentagon Advisor
Aaron Maté
US War Lobby Fuels Conflict in Russia, Ukraine, and Syria: Ex-Pentagon Advisor
12 January 2022
A former senior advisor at the Pentagon confirms what was obvious to those who pay attention.
Raytheon’s Raven caws “War—Evermore!” Not wind beneath Negroz wings…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Raytheon’s Raven caws “War—Evermore!” Not wind beneath Negroz wings…
29 September 2021
Afghan Crisis Must End America’s Empire of War, Corruption and Poverty
Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies  
Afghan Crisis Must End America’s Empire of War, Corruption and Poverty
01 September 2021
The U.S.

More Stories


  • Settler Colonial Racism on Canada Day
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Settler Colonial Racism on Canada Day
    30 Jun 2023
    El Jones is a poet, journalist, professor and activist in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
  • Activists Demand the US Take Cuba #OffTheList of "State Sponsors of Terrorism"
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Activists Demand the US Take Cuba #OffTheList of "State Sponsors of Terrorism"
    30 Jun 2023
    Shaquille Fontenot is a co-chair of the National Network on Cuba and a co-founder of the Low Country Action Committee in Charleston, South Carolina.
  • OceanGate and How the Wealthy Kill
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    OceanGate and How the Wealthy Kill
    28 Jun 2023
    A mass attack of derision occurred when the facts about the Titan submersible were revealed. Laughter at the expense of an incompetent rich man is understandable but skirts the issue. The…
  • INTERVIEW: Por qué Luchamos los Negros/What the Black Power Struggle is About, Stokely Carmichael, Havana, 1967
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    INTERVIEW: Por qué Luchamos los Negros/What the Black Power Struggle is About, Stokely Carmichael, Havana, 1967
    28 Jun 2023
    When Kwame Ture was still Stokely Carmichael he gave an extraordinary interview in Havana in 1967 on Black Power politics, Third World Solidarity, imperialism, and revolution.
  • Human Suffering Worsens in DRC, the Heart of Africa
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Human Suffering Worsens in DRC, the Heart of Africa
    28 Jun 2023
    A million more Congolese people have been displaced to satisfy the resource hunger of the industrialized world.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us