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

R2P: Responsibility To Protect
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
02 Feb 2022
🖨️ Print Article
Source: hedearnell.medium.com
Source: hedearnell.medium.com

Unhoused sisters and brothers, Civilian 

Casualty-Collateral Damage,  

Ol’ Schmo’s sounding Sam and Dave-ish— 

“Hold on, I’m comin’… 

Hold on, I’m comin’…” 

from high alert into harm’s way of your sidewalk  

sleeper cells—your encampments, tarps and tents 

sprung up like multi-colored mini-mushroom clouds 

Unhoused sisters and brothers, Civilian 

Casualty-Collateral Damage,  

Ol’ Schmo’s sounding Sam and Dave-ish— 

“Hold on, I’m comin’… 

Hold on, I’m comin’…” from high alert to coordinates  

of borders between Berkeley and Oakland where you’re  

Amassed. 

He’s comin' boots on the ground—Special Forces—brave  

fighting men and women platoon/battalion, heavily-armed— Amish-style—ready to raise roofs and grow food… 

Capitalism’s putative leader knows the Golden State’s home to half his nation’s unhoused. And he’s hopping mad—R2P: Responsibility To Protect—humanitarian intervention—MAD! “What lousy dictator would do this to his own people?!” “Own people!” he mumbles “Will gas be next?!” “Gas?!” he babbles… 

Unhoused sisters and brothers, Civilian 

Casualty-Collateral Damage, 

Ol’ Schmo’s sounding Sam and Dave-ish— 

“Hold on, I’m comin’… 

Hold on, I’m comin’…” from high alert, deploying good guys with nail-guns, hammers, saws, 2x4s, rebar, bricks and concrete— Weapons of Mass Construction—Build Back Better ain’t bosh! He’s comin’ ‘cause housing’s a human right; 

Comin’ to get bogged down in Structural Adjustments; 

Comin’ Slick Willy-ish: “I feel your pain—it’s the economy stupid!” Comin’ Drone Ranger-ish: with spare “Change you can believe in…” If your eyes well up when handed your keys it’s OK; OK if you burst  into tears during your first shower in two years; OK to wake up in your  warm laundry-fresh bed babbling: “Support the troops!” “Support the troops!”

It’s OK to let good guys with Weapons of Mass Construction board planes before babysitters, teachers, midwifes, nurses, doctors and dentists as you chant, “Thank you for your service” over and over… 

Unhoused sisters and brothers, Civilian 

Casualty-Collateral Damage—  

Spoiler alert: 

Ol’ Schmo’s changing his tune. He’s saying he 

Tolt you from da git—from da jump: “Nothing 

would fundamentally change…He’s saying he 

has a right to sing the Blues— a right to try to 

sound more and more like Lady Day each day: 

“Hush now, don’t explain… 

money waits in Ukraine…” 

 

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

 

War and Empire

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


More Stories


  • Little Rock Antioch’s RICO blu klux klan
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Little Rock Antioch’s RICO blu klux klan
    06 Sep 2023
    Little Rock Antioch’s RICO blu klux klan (For Franklin, the Families, and Antioch’s Fightback)
  •  BAR Book Forum: Rima Vesely-Flad’s Book, “Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Rima Vesely-Flad’s Book, “Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition”
    06 Sep 2023
    This week’s featured author is Rima Vesely-Flad.
  • How Joe Biden and The Democratic Party’s Climate Agenda Increases Environmental Racism More Than It Reduces Emissions [A Three Part Series]
    Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    How Joe Biden and The Democratic Party’s Climate Agenda Increases Environmental Racism More Than It Reduces Emissions [A Three Part Series]
    06 Sep 2023
    The environmental benefits of Biden's Inflation Reduction Act are non-existent for Black and other marginalized communities.
  • Libya’s Attempt to Normalize Relations with the Zionist Entity is a Multilayered Treason
    Essam Elkorghli
    Libya’s Attempt to Normalize Relations with the Zionist Entity is a Multilayered Treason
    06 Sep 2023
    There are Arab governments going along with the U.S. push to normalize relations with Israel. But people throughout the region are adamantly opposed to such treachery, as the now suspended Foreign…
  • 50 Years Later, Is There Anything Left Of Hip Hop?
    Jason England
    50 Years Later, Is There Anything Left Of Hip Hop?
    06 Sep 2023
    Nothing is sacred under capitalism. Even hip hop, the genre which spoke to Black politics and culture is now just another commodity.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us