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

Cranes and Tents
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
05 Dec 2018
🖨️ Print Article
Stable working class neighborhoods are the bane of speculators, developers and capitalist politicians.
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.

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


More Stories


  • Swaziland Army in “Full Charge” After Protests, Many Killed by King’s Troops
    All Africa
    Swaziland Army in “Full Charge” After Protests, Many Killed by King’s Troops
    15 Jul 2021
    The Swazi military has reportedly warned the population to “obey instructions” or “face full wraith of troops.”
  • “Rampant Issues”: Black Farmers are Still Left Out at USDA
    Ximena Bustillo
    “Rampant Issues”: Black Farmers are Still Left Out at USDA
    15 Jul 2021
    Farmers of color received less than one percent of the payments even though they are five percent of all U.S. farmers.
  • Black Is Back Coalition Holds Conference on Community Control of Police
    Black is Back Coalition
    Black Is Back Coalition Holds Conference on Community Control of Police
    15 Jul 2021
    “We must deepen the resistance to police terror and all attempts to protect a status quo of colonial domination of our people,” the 17 organizations of the coalition declared.
  •  Black Agenda Radio for Week of Monday, July 12, 2021
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of Monday, July 12, 2021
    13 Jul 2021
    CRT Origins “Radical Liberal,” Not Marxist
  •  Slain Haitian President Was Washington’s Choice
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Slain Haitian President Was Washington’s Choice
    13 Jul 2021
    “Jovenel Moise’s path to president was paved with US, Canadian and French funding and support,” said Dr Jemima Pierre, a Haitian American anthropologist and political analyst at UC
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us