CODE RED!!
Calling all street heat—shoe leather legislators—
Calling all pavement policymakers bored by the bigtop:
clean coal clowns; fossil fools; net zero acrobats; carbon
jugglers…Bored by greasy-thumbed grifters and jingoist
gangsters; Bored by junk metal-chested generals disguised
as donkeys inside elephants—Tethered to tits on Wall Street’s
bull… Blocking! Stalling! Gaslighting! Waging war by other names…
Calling all street heat—shoe leather legislators—
Calling all pavement policymakers bored by the bigtop:
tired of 2/4 Dancers dancing the Limbo from bended knees;
Tired of them spinning spineless legislation swaddled in
rectangular rags—reaching across their arid aisle and
Externalizing excrement. Leaving dung-splattered streets to
3 monkeys who See No Oil; Hear No Coal; Speak of No Gas as evil…
Calling all street heat—shoe leather legislators—
Calling all pavement policymakers… Who’ll stop
the circus from sullying our names with climate
crime? Who’ll say their names—their Wall Street
gang names—reconnecting them to climate crimes?
Who’ll say Superstorm Chevron?
Nor’ easter Exxon; Tsunami Shell?
And who’ll say Blackened bird BP?
Calling all street heat—shoe leather legislators—
Calling all pavement policymakers who may—or
may not—remember the Arab Spring; Remember Occupy
lingo “1%”/“99%.” Remember knitted brows; Remember
putting forehead to problems
created by person Hoods—aka corporate kings and queens…
Calling all street heat—shoe leather legislators—
Calling all pavement policymakers recall rubber
bullet, plastic cuff, bloody, broken bone, stolen eyeball-
tooth trauma…Recall draconian sentences required to
arrest killer cops; wrench slavers statues from pedestals;
Rechristen schools, streets, parks, plazas, teams; Retire
Unca Ben, Aunt Jemima with stars and bars at NASCAR
Calling all street heat—shoe leather legislators—
and scholars
Calling all pavement policymakers—and professors…
Study resistance. Major in mass action. Your gait, your
posture’s perfect—like ours once were—
Matriculate 2020-like. And defend dissertations entitled:
“Fossil Fuels, Force and Deception of The Corporate State—
University Of The Streets…”
© 2021. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
As the United States and its allies push renewed foreign intervention, the uses and abuses of the first Black republic as a testing ground of imperialism offer stark warnings. Haiti still struggles…
"Dis-honest Broker (for my friend Farid)" is the latest work from BAR's poet-in-residence.
On October 18, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield raised her hand to veto even so much as a “humanitarian pause” to Israel’s war on Gaza.
In this eulogy for dub poet Michael “Mikey” Smith, Amiri Baraka asserts the need for Black and Third World mass organization against the ravages of neo-colonialism, imperialism, racism, and…
The United States still has the dubious distinction of having more people behind bars than any other country. The population of local jails continue to rise and is a bellwether for mass incarceration…
