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

The fire this time … (as Amiri tolt me)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
29 Jan 2025
🖨️ Print Article
Satellite image of LA fires
A nighttime satellite image shows wildfire burning homes and buildings in Los Angeles County’s Altadena region on Jan. 8, 2025. Satellite image: ©2025 Maxar Technologies.

“Scratch a lie—find a thief !”

—Aretha Robinson (Ray Charles’s Mother)

100 mph winds fan flames, dancing, skipping,
Leaping—3 stories high!           Thousands of
Firefighters from as far away as Mexico and
Canada— boots on the ground— 10 toes down

Cali’s burning! Yet, the cruel, cutthroat
Capitalist cult chants,
“Drill, baby, drill!” And blows blame
Game woke smoke up flimflammed fannies

Cali’s burning! Yet, the cruel, cutthroat
Capitalist cult chants,
“Drill, baby, drill!” And conditions Golden
State aid on southern-style voter suppression

Cali’s burning! Yet, fossil fools pretend to fight
Fire with FOX-box flamethrowers in desert
Hearts of evaporated empathy … And misdirect
The ‘search' for fault for The Fire This Time …

Swear on the full pardon of the Horned Shaman—
Teller didn’t tell the American Petroleum Institute in ‘59
Fossil fuels would gift weird weather patterns, droughts,
Fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes writ large worldwide

Couldn’t have been Union Oil, GM, Goodyear Rubber, and
‘Developer’ decisions 100 years ago—like scrapping fast,
Fume-less, electric street cars for smog-mobiles! Nah, it had
To be the fault of Black bitch mayor/dyke-DEI-hire fire chief!

If … snaking freeways every direction possible; If  bumper-
To-bumper traffic of tailpipes vomiting carbon's harmful; If
Greenhouse gassing generations claiming the City of Angels’s
Dangerous— it must be the mayor’s and fire chief’s fault!

Must’ve been Mexican murderers and rapists ripping up a
Thousand miles of track from the country’s largest electric
Rail transit network! Yeah, they wanted jobs of workers the
Trains moved daily to plants, factories and offices citywide.

Yeah, must’ve been the Mexicans who sold streetcars for
Scrap metal and dropped others in waters off Redondo Beach.
Had to be the mayor, the Mexicans and fire chief who made
LA Times’ owner Chandler propagandize against streetcars!

Why, no way would big oil, auto, rubber, road builders, realtors,
Land speculators, developers—
Force white folks’ white flight to suburbs in solitary smog-mobiles!
Must’ve been the mayor, Mexicans and fire chief starting ‘LA Sprawl’

Gotta be the mayor’s fault/fire chief’s fault—not snatching more
Money from firefighters for more cops fighting fire with gunfire!
More good guys with guns! (They’re eating the dogs— poisoning
The blood! Build the wall! It’s a Firewall!) “Drill, baby, drill!” “Drill, baby, drill!”

© 2025. 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.

Los Angeles
wildfires
Climate Crisis
Capitalism
Racism

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


Related Stories

Imani Nile
Every Winter, the Bronx Burns
22 October 2025
The cause of the explosion at Mitchel Houses in the South Bronx harkens back to the arson-for-profit schemes of the 1970s that caused
Tracie Canada
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Tracie Canada’s Book, “Tackling the Everyday”
10 September 2025
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: This is Criminal, Malik Rahim, New Orleans, September 1st, 2005
27 August 2025
“It’s not like New Orleans was caught off guard. This could have been prevented.”
Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
Katrina: The Rich Folks' Opportunity and Our Dismal Failure
27 August 2025
"Racism showed its ass in the days after August 29, 2005."
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Karen Antoinette Scott’s Book, SACKRED Birth
06 August 2025
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured author is Karen Antoinette Scott. Dr.
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
The Bad Hombre Defense?
23 July 2025
What? You mean the client list vanished?      Disappeared? Disappeared from the AG’s desk like dropping egg prices?
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
EDITORIAL: Even During Disaster, The Pittsburgh Courier, 1927
09 July 2025
“Neither disaster, catastrophe, nor calamity can take precedence … over the color-caste system.”
Adam Mahoney
From Watts to D.C.: How 500 Black Neighborhoods Vanished in 45 Years
02 July 2025
America’s gentrified neighborhoods have lost 500,000 Black people, while gaining residents of every other race, a study finds.
Jon Jeter
Making a Mountain out of a Mole Hill, Trump Sends Troops to Los Angeles, Hoping to Energize His MAGA Base
11 June 2025
Trump deploys Marines against LA protesters, echoing Nixon’s Kent State crackdown.
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
One Big Beautiful Bank Job!
28 May 2025
Masked. Armed to the teeth. Synchronized

More Stories


  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio November 7, 2025
    07 Nov 2025
    In this week’s segment, we examine claims of a genocide against Christians in the African nation of Nigeria, and the geopolitical strategems behind the narrative. But first, we discuss the election…
  • Zohran Mamdani
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Zohran Mamdani and the Left
    07 Nov 2025
    Lance Hawkins joins us from New York City to discuss the recent election of Zohran Mamdani, who will take office as the mayor of New York City on January 1. Lance Hawkins is a community, labor, and…
  • Nigerian Newspapers
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Major Power Politics, Rare Earth Minerals, and Claims of Genocide in Nigeria
    07 Nov 2025
    David Hundeyin is a Nigerian investigative journalist, bestselling author, and founder of West Africa Weekly, an independent Pan-African digital news publication focusing on West Africa and the Sahel…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Zohran Mamdani and a Small Victory for the People
    05 Nov 2025
    New Yorkers experienced some democracy with Zohran Mamdani's victory in the mayor's race and are inspiring voters across the country to believe that change is possible. But the outcome is a challenge…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    INTERVIEW: Blacks in Brazil: An Interview with Lélia Gonzalez, 1980
    05 Nov 2025
    “Black Brazilians have been suffering … since the establishment of slavery more than 400 years ago.”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us