Stable working class neighborhoods are the bane of speculators, developers and capitalist politicians.
Lording over the landscape like giant
Insects sucking soul, blood, chocolate
into multi-colored mushrooms
Metastasizing citywide.
Officers ordering vacant storefronts,
lined up like soldiers, to make money,
while brothers with cupped hands
platoon on plastic crates at entrances to
$4-a-cup coffee shops with belligerent baristas.
Beneath fiery crimson skies,
afternoon freeways are fuming parking lots.
Capitalism’s poisoning water and air,
and ignorant exploiters don’t care!
Pyramids and huts; tuxes and tails,
unwashed butts—tents and jails.
First come the cranes—then the
Tents, skyrocketing mortgages—then the
Rents… money, money, money for military
Bases in far off places—but, it’s “Pie in the
sky,” to demand affordable living spaces!
Basketball team’s outgrown The Town,
football team’s slipping off to Sin
City after slurping at the trough…
Capitalism’s poisoning water and air,
and ignorant exploiters don’t care!
Pyramids and huts; tuxes and tails,
unwashed butts—tents and jails.
First come the cranes—then the
Tents, skyrocketing mortgages—then the
Rents… money, money, money for military
Bases in far off places—but, it’s “Pie in the
sky,” to demand affordable living spaces!
And we play dress-up in grown folks’ clothes—
Tiny red, white and blue stickers— pretending
we’re fixing it in 20 minutes… every 2-4 years …
© 2018. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.
Wilmer Leon and Margaret discussed the true reasons for antipathy towards Niger, and why other African nations are used as proxies for western interests.
Eritrea is an example of an independent and self-determining African state. Its people are rightly proud of their history.
​​​​​​Sixty years ago, Nkrumah told us why it was important that Africa unite. Today, his message and roadmap for Pan-African unity is needed more than ever.
The war against Africans intensifies, the puppets and stooges do as they are ordered, while others are satisfied with empty gestures. But the revolutionary path is unchanged, as Ajamu Baraka…
Last week I attended the Eritrean American Festival in the Seattle/Tacoma area, at the Tacoma Convention Center. This was the speech I would have given if the festival had not been disrupted by…
