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


  • Leftist Anti-Anti-Imperialism: Supporting Imperialism But With Caveats
    Roger D. Harris
    Leftist Anti-Anti-Imperialism: Supporting Imperialism But With Caveats
    09 Jun 2021
    The phony Left dabbles in R2P interventions and claims the world is plagued by a plethora of imperialisms, thus letting the superpower and its allies off the hook.
  • AFRICOM Military’s Exercise: The Art of Creating New Pretexts for Propagating US Interests
    Pavan Kulkami
    AFRICOM Military’s Exercise: The Art of Creating New Pretexts for Propagating US Interests
    09 Jun 2021
    An AFRICOM-sponsored military exercise in the Mediterranean Sea, ostensibly to combat “irregular migration” and trafficking, is really about further militarizing Africa.
  • New Investigation Reveals Role of Israeli Operatives in Colombia’s “Political Genocide”
    Dan Cohen
    New Investigation Reveals Role of Israeli Operatives in Colombia’s “Political Genocide”
    09 Jun 2021
    Known as the “Red Dance,” the systematic murder of the Patriotic Union in Colombia was apparently concocted by one of the most decorated spies in Israeli history.
  • Black Agenda Radio for Week of June 7, 2021
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of June 7, 2021
    08 Jun 2021
    The Democrat-Republican Symbiosis
  •  Margaret Kimberley Israel Aides Repression in Colombia
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Israel Aids Repression in Colombia
    08 Jun 2021
    The Zionist state is helping the government of Colombia violently suppress a national strike against austerity, said Ajamu Baraka, national organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace and 2016 Green
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us