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

Dis-honest Broker (for my friend Farid)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
25 Oct 2023
🖨️ Print Article
Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Israel
Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Israel (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP)

 

Dis-honest Broker

(for my friend Farid)

 

Metallic music of shovels; Abrasions on bare hands
Digging, digging, digging through twisted bones and
busted bricks of buildings. To backpacks, blankets, baby
body parts to free tiny arms and legs emitting whispers…

Obese bulldozers munching homes and olive trees;
Settlers snacking on bones of the evicted;
Aquifer flooded with sea water and sewage are G-
Rated nightmares and matter not to NFL, NBA bi-partisans

Forked tongue, dis-honest broker, fluent in ancient language
Genocide
Trots tattered tropes for terror out. Swears another Offal Office
Oath on War House Bible—bathed in blood of 10s of millions—
Wounded Knee to Trail of Tears; Tulsa to Hiroshima; Korea to
Vietnam to Afghanistan…

Riddler/Joker—Dis-
honest broker: “You have a right to”
Be an aircraft carrier on the desert
Acting as a weapons lab conducting
Trade shows; Disguised as democracy
Acting as an apartheid state; Concealing
Third Reich real estate practices—Go on
Step on the gas—and
“Mow the grass!”

“You have a right to” quell them/Shell
them! Bombard them/boneyard them!
Snipe them/wipe them! Un-home them/Pogrom them!
Expel them/Farewell them!

“You have a right to” strangulate them/Annihilate them!
Bomb roads they’re instructed to travel— Let them eat
Lead and gravel!

“You have a right to” kill them One-a-Day… for years—
Daily… for decades… Until bloody bootprints become
Normal as “Ironclad!” Normal as Baghdad…
“You have a right to” 22 days of carnage; provided
you Madison Avenue it: “Operation Caste-Lead!”
“You have a right to” Step on the gas—and
“Mow the grass!“

“You have a right to” 51 days of slaughter—if
you market it as: “Operation Protective Edge!”
“You have a right to” Step on the gas—and
“Mow the grass!”

"You have a right to” Dr. Goebbels’ white phosphorus
prescriptions for human animals holding human shields;
Holding hostages; Holding hospital hideouts; Holding
House keys—for… 3/4 of a Century…

Š 2023. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

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 and PayPal.

Israel
Palestine
Joe Biden
Apartheid Israel
US Imperialism

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


Related Stories

Belen Fernandez
Israel’s Lebanese Land Grab
21 October 2026
Under the guise of a farcical “pilot zone” project to restore Lebanon’s sovereignty, Israel is pursuing a scorched-earth strategy whi
Gerald Perreira
October 7, 2023: The day that changed the world
21 October 2026
October 7, 2023, was not an isolated attack, but the culmination of generations of Palestinian imprisonment and resistance in Gaza, comparable
Edward Rhymes
What Changes For Palestine?
21 October 2026
Disregard for Palestinian rights is a feature of Israeli politics rather than a bug.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
European Vassal States' Self-Destruction Endangers the Entire World
14 October 2026
European puppet states have undermined themselves and their peoples' needs at the behest of the U.S.
Isaac Saney
No To Terrorism, Genocide And Imperialism: Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Bombing of Cubana 455
14 October 2026
The 1976 bombing of Cubana Flight 455 was part of a six-decade U.S.-orchestrated campaign of destabilization against Cuba, which has now escala
Stephen Millies
Don’t Let Them Kill Cilia Flores!
14 October 2026
While Trump pardoned an actual drug lord president, he keeps a kidnapped Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, First Combatant Ce
Black Alliance For Peace
The Black Alliance for Peace Condemns Renewal of Neocolonial Gang Suppression Force UN Mandate in Haiti
07 October 2026
The UN's renewal of the Gang Suppression Force mandate is part of a wider hemispheric project to reassert military control across the Americas.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
An open letter to the honorable people of the United States of America
07 October 2026
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has issued a letter addressed to the American people, outlining its views on recent developments a
Dr. M. Reza Behnam
Three Years of Genocide: How ‘Never Again’ Lost Meaning in Gaza
07 October 2026
If international law and justice are buried in the rubble of Gaza, the global community will ultimately be digging its own grave.
Sami Al-Arian
Why Hamas believed the status quo was more dangerous than its 7 October gamble
07 October 2026
Three years into Israel's genocide in Gaza, the consequences of a decision driven by siege, settlement expansion, and assaults on Al-Aqsa are s

More Stories


  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Hourly, Hate America Rallies Stampede Through heads of Cruel Reich Cultists
    29 Oct 2025
    "Hourly, Hate America Rallies Stampede Through heads of Cruel Reich Cultists" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Mosaab Baba
    El-Fasher's Fall: A New Chapter in Darfur's Ethnic Cleansing
    29 Oct 2025
    The world's worst humanitarian crisis just found a new epicenter. The capture of El-Fasher signals the start of a worsening chapter in the history of Sudan.
  • Clau O'Brien Moscoso
    Peru's Executive in Crisis: The Anti-Democratic Legacy of Fujimori's '93 Constitution
    29 Oct 2025
    Peru's congress has perfected the art of the constitutional coup, disposing of presidents the moment their usefulness expires. The removal of Dina Boluarte continues a decades-long strategy to…
  • x
    International League of Peoples' Struggle , International Peoples' Front , People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty
    The Right to Resist is the Right of the People! International Organizations Launch the International People’s Tribunal for Palestine
    29 Oct 2025
    When established institutions refuse to respond in the face of genocide, the mandate for justice falls to the people. This tribunal is a global grassroots movement taking the international law into…
  • Black Alliance For Peace , Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team
    Black Alliance for Peace Stands Firmly with Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution
    29 Oct 2025
    We condemn U.S. lawlessness in Our Americas and call for multinational intervention to guarantee a ‘Zone of Peace’.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us