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

The fire this time … (as Amiri tolt me)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
29 Jan 2025
🖨️ Print Article
Satellite image of LA fires
A nighttime satellite image shows wildfire burning homes and buildings in Los Angeles County’s Altadena region on Jan. 8, 2025. Satellite image: ©2025 Maxar Technologies.

“Scratch a lie—find a thief !”

—Aretha Robinson (Ray Charles’s Mother)

100 mph winds fan flames, dancing, skipping,
Leaping—3 stories high!           Thousands of
Firefighters from as far away as Mexico and
Canada— boots on the ground— 10 toes down

Cali’s burning! Yet, the cruel, cutthroat
Capitalist cult chants,
“Drill, baby, drill!” And blows blame
Game woke smoke up flimflammed fannies

Cali’s burning! Yet, the cruel, cutthroat
Capitalist cult chants,
“Drill, baby, drill!” And conditions Golden
State aid on southern-style voter suppression

Cali’s burning! Yet, fossil fools pretend to fight
Fire with FOX-box flamethrowers in desert
Hearts of evaporated empathy … And misdirect
The ‘search' for fault for The Fire This Time …

Swear on the full pardon of the Horned Shaman—
Teller didn’t tell the American Petroleum Institute in ‘59
Fossil fuels would gift weird weather patterns, droughts,
Fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes writ large worldwide

Couldn’t have been Union Oil, GM, Goodyear Rubber, and
‘Developer’ decisions 100 years ago—like scrapping fast,
Fume-less, electric street cars for smog-mobiles! Nah, it had
To be the fault of Black bitch mayor/dyke-DEI-hire fire chief!

If … snaking freeways every direction possible; If  bumper-
To-bumper traffic of tailpipes vomiting carbon's harmful; If
Greenhouse gassing generations claiming the City of Angels’s
Dangerous— it must be the mayor’s and fire chief’s fault!

Must’ve been Mexican murderers and rapists ripping up a
Thousand miles of track from the country’s largest electric
Rail transit network! Yeah, they wanted jobs of workers the
Trains moved daily to plants, factories and offices citywide.

Yeah, must’ve been the Mexicans who sold streetcars for
Scrap metal and dropped others in waters off Redondo Beach.
Had to be the mayor, the Mexicans and fire chief who made
LA Times’ owner Chandler propagandize against streetcars!

Why, no way would big oil, auto, rubber, road builders, realtors,
Land speculators, developers—
Force white folks’ white flight to suburbs in solitary smog-mobiles!
Must’ve been the mayor, Mexicans and fire chief starting ‘LA Sprawl’

Gotta be the mayor’s fault/fire chief’s fault—not snatching more
Money from firefighters for more cops fighting fire with gunfire!
More good guys with guns! (They’re eating the dogs— poisoning
The blood! Build the wall! It’s a Firewall!) “Drill, baby, drill!” “Drill, baby, drill!”

© 2025. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

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 and PayPal.

Los Angeles
wildfires
Climate Crisis
Capitalism
Racism

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


Related Stories

Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
Trayvon and White Madness
21 October 2026
As Black Agenda Report is poised to celebrate its 20th anniversary, we reprint Glen Ford's commentary on the killing of Trayvon Martin and the
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Black Radicalism and the Return of the “Subversive Negro”
16 September 2026
NSPM-7 and the State Department's international campaign against "far-left political terrorism" represent new and more dangerous form
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Colin Kaepernick’s “The Perilous Fight”
16 September 2026
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
"Woke 1" and Democratic Party Deceit
19 August 2026
The democrats’ backtracking on what they dismissively refer to as “wokeness” is the newest iteration of their political trickery as o
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
Trash Panda Politics Guides the Black Misleadership Class’s Electoral Dumpster Dive
29 July 2026
The Congressional Black Caucus electoral strategy has turned the 2026 midterm elections into a dumpster dive for corporate interests and Zionis
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Slimy green cesspool reflecting capitalist rule
22 July 2026
Capitalism says corporations are people …  It says,Money’s speech …    Buying, bossing, sock-puppet
Matt Sledge , Sam Biddle
ICE Recruitment Tweets Are So Racist That Cops Feared They Could Incite Neo-Nazi Violence
27 May 2026
A newly uncovered police bulletin warns that white supremacists may interpret ICE social media content as a call to violence.
Mark P. Fancher
If Iran has the Strait of Hormuz, What Can Black People Use for Leverage and Power?
13 May 2026
Tennessee just erased its only majority-Black voting district.
Sol Elias
Death By Black Excellence
15 April 2026
Misogynoir, a term meant to name the specific violence against poor and working-class Black women is now being used as a shield for political e
Petros Bein
Internal Colonialism and the Reproduction of Capital
15 April 2026
The United States operates as an internal colonial system.

More Stories


  • Freedom Rider: Say No to Bloomberg 
    Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Say No to Bloomberg 
    27 Nov 2019
    Bloomberg says he wants to stop Donald Trump but he’s really running to stop Bernie Sanders.
  • Barack Obama and the Ruling Class Target the Black Vote to Smother Sanders
    Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
    Barack Obama and the Ruling Class Target the Black Vote to Smother Sanders
    27 Nov 2019
    Obama’s principle task is to ensure sure that Black Americans do not vote in the direction of single-payer healthcare and housing for all.
  • count ALL votes
    BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
    count ALL votes
    27 Nov 2019
    POW…POW…POW…POW… My leaders were voted out of office with hot lead ballots: red runoffs in driveways, beds, ballroom floors, on balconies, and college campuses.
  • Bolivia Coup: Hatred of the Indian
    Álvaro García Linera
    Bolivia Coup: Hatred of the Indian
    27 Nov 2019
    How did the traditional middle class incubate so much hatred and resentment towards the people, leading them to embrace racialized fascism centered on the Indian as the enemy?
  • Give No Thanks for Settlers’ Savagery
    Mark P. Fancher
    Give No Thanks for Settlers’ Savagery
    27 Nov 2019
    The peculiar national holiday is a celebration of white settler conquest – a whitewashing of unspeakable crimes.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us