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

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.
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Kid growing up under growing fascism
25 February 2026
When I became old enough to drink —then I became old enough to vote.When I became old enough to think —
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
Trump’s De Jure Racism Provides Convenient Cover for Liberals and Democrats to Mask Their De Facto Racism
11 February 2026
The political theater of condemning Trump's racism serves the function of diverting attention from the more dangerous, policy-based r
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Operation Piracy or Pedophile Protection, mates?
21 January 2026
Pomade man moves. Demented Don moves. Gun moll, puppy-killingmoves. Reich Ministers move and groove ghoulishly to Vanilla Ice —

More Stories


  • BAR Book Forum: Maurice Rafael Magaña’s “Cartographies of Youth Resistance”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Maurice Rafael Magaña’s “Cartographies of Youth Resistance”
    27 Jan 2021
    Activist youth who weave deep histories of resistance together with anarchist, autonomous, and decolonial politics and urban culture.
  • BAR Book Forum: Andrea Allen’s “Violence and Desire in Brazilian Lesbian Relationships”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Andrea Allen’s “Violence and Desire in Brazilian Lesbian Relationships”
    27 Jan 2021
    Even those who are significantly marginalized act in ways that, unfortunately, inflict pain on others.
  • Where Trumpism Lives
    Jacob Whiton
    Where Trumpism Lives
    27 Jan 2021
    Support for pro-Trump Republicans remains driven by relatively well-off whites in fast-growing, rapidly diversifying suburbs – not by economic despair in rural America.
  • Martin Luther King Jr. and the Socialist Within 
    Stephen Joseph Scott
    Martin Luther King Jr. and the Socialist Within 
    27 Jan 2021
    Each year in January as King is honored in the eyes of the public, there is little mention of the demands of the man and his mission: his fight for economic justice.
  • Amazon Launches Anti-Union Website to Derail Alabama Union Drive
    Lauren Kaori Gurley
    Amazon Launches Anti-Union Website to Derail Alabama Union Drive
    27 Jan 2021
    The drive at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama marks one of the few times in the company's history that workers will have the opportunity to vote in a union election.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us