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
  • omnibus

Reclaiming Our Time for the Planet
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
03 Nov 2021
Reclaiming Our Time for the Planet

                                                                    Reclaiming our time

                                                                       for the Planet…

 

Grand Canyon bathtub rings telling
us the Colorado River’s dropped over
150 feet. Twenty years of drought—And
A wildfire a week; A nor’easter; superstorm;
hurricane; tornado; typhoon; And
tsunami over blackened birds, slimy, gooey,
tar balled waters—obligatory oil spills over
Corporate propaganda cycles—A delicious
recipe for disaster…

Whisker-sized particulate matter’s winning
Air superiority in pumpkin skies. Skies
Bees buzzed decks from; Skies hummingbirds
and butterflies hung out in.
Skies crows dropped from, jamming with
pigeons and spying on stashing/noshing
squirrels. A place you could get a gallon of
unleaded water that smelled drinkable…

This was before Roundup Ready corporate
propaganda cycles ejaculating Satan’s sperm
into our aquifers. Before prioritizing our
Friends by stages/types of cancer they suffer…

No need for nuance here—let’s say it simply—
say it plainly:
the kettle’s been on the back burner whistling
Frantically for decades—Warning of capitalist
immolation…And the world can’t wait…

The world can’t wait…Bassackwards…
for 21st century technology to catch
up with 17th century ideology—can’t
wait in perpetuity on old
mush-mouthed men’s mumblings on markets—
Seventeenth century
catechisms covering 21st century climate crimes…

The world can’t wait…
for more inflated claptrap; more cleverly crafted
lies—more methane promises huffed and puffed—
Killing us softly with their carbon…

 

© 2021. 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

 

Climate Change

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


Related Stories

Abayomi Azikiwe, Black Agenda Report Contributor
COP29 Summit Marked by Acrimonious Debate Over Emissions and Finance
27 November 2024
Annual climate gathering reflects divisions between the industrialized states and the Global South.
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
If You Want to See White “Supremacy” at Work, Don’t go to a Trump Rally, Observe the Democrats’ Approach to Climate Change
29 May 2024
Despite the undeserved loyalty of Black people to the Democratic Party, lawmakers continue to push policy that ignores concerns about climate c
Children near destroyed solar panels in Gaza
Melissa Garriga
Don’t Let Warmongers Greenwash their Ecocide this Earth Day
24 April 2024
The destruction of the environment and acceleration of the climate crisis happen silently under the veil of “national security,” despite the fa
Shasta people
Zach Frye
No Green For Go: How Settler-Colonialism Kills More Than Just People
27 March 2024
Settler colonialism has caused the destruction of indigenous lands around the world and, as a result, the environment in which we all live.
Flooding in Somalia
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Climate Profiteers Exploit Somali Suffering
20 December 2023
NGOs and other climate profiteers treat Somalia as a poster child for global warming.
COP 28 Logo
Abayomi Azikiwe
COP28 Summit Concludes with Contradictory Agreement
20 December 2023
Originally published in News Gha
Money for Weapons as the World Burns
Vijay Prashad
Money for Weapons as the World Burns
11 May 2022
$100 billion was pledged to assist the Global South amidst the climate change crisis but world wide defense spending now exceeds $2 trillion.
Don't Look Up Reflects the Cynicism of Capitalist Decay, for Better and for Worse
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
Don't Look Up Reflects the Cynicism of Capitalist Decay, for Better and for Worse
05 January 2022
The controversial film offers insight into the crisis of the system but misses the mark in key areas.
TRANSCRIPT: “Will they mourn us on the front line?” Mia Mottley, PM of Barbados, speech at the Opening of the World Leaders Summit of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), November 1, 2021
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
TRANSCRIPT: “Will they mourn us on the front line?” Mia Mottley, PM of Barbados, speech at the Opening of the World Leaders Summit of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), November 1, 2021
03 November 2021
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley's comments at COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Glasgow, provided an impassi
Bolivia's president Luis Arce used the COP26 summit to speak against the "green capitalism" offered by the rich capitalist nations and in favor of alternatives which put humanity at the center.
Brett Wilkins
Bolivian President Warns 'Carbon Colonialism' Won't Solve Climate Crisis
02 November 2021
Bolivia's president Luis Arce used the COP26 summit to speak against "green capitalism" offered by the rich capitalist nations and in favor of

More Stories


  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio May 9, 2025
    09 May 2025
    In this week’s segment, we discuss the 80th anniversary of victory in Europe in World War II, and the disinformation that centers on the U.S.'s role and dismisses the pivotal Soviet role in that…
  • Book: The Rebirth of the African Phoenix
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    The Rebirth of the African Phoenix: A View from Babylon
    09 May 2025
    Roger McKenzie is the international editor of the UK-based Morning Star, the only English-language socialist daily newspaper in the world. He joins us from Oxford to discuss his new book, “The…
  • ww2
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Bruce Dixon: US Fake History of World War II Underlies Permanent Bipartisan Hostility Toward Russia
    09 May 2025
    The late Bruce Dixon was a co-founder and managing editor of Black Agenda Report. In 2018, he provided this commentary entitled, "US Fake History of World War II Underlies Permanent Bipartisan…
  • Nakba
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    The Meaning of Nakba Day
    09 May 2025
    Nadiah Alyafai is a member of the US Palestinian Community Network chapter in Chicago and she joins us to discuss why the public must be aware of the Nakba and the continuity of Palestinian…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Ryan Coogler, Shedeur Sanders, Karmelo Anthony, and Rodney Hinton, Jr
    07 May 2025
    Black people who are among the rich and famous garner praise and love, and so do those who are in distress. But concerns for the masses of people and their struggles are often missing.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us