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
  • omnibus

Gunmen
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
04 Apr 2018
🖨️ Print Article
Stephon Clark's grandmother
Stephon Clark's grandmother

Hm, March 18th… my Mother’s birthday… I
heard lead bees stung the young man’s
Back, severed vertebrae, collapsed his lung,
left his arm bits of bone…on a ruby red river

Tear droughts betray me, though
Another Mother’s son was stolen—not
“Lost.” Though he didn’t “pass away”
on Disney sets of sci-fi
Where pigs fly
in firing squad formations,
under color of law, as
Gunmen—rerun-men:
Raising right hooves, testi-lying
about muted body-cams and
Special effects, puffing up Black men
as Hulk; Transmuting them into Black
Magic stunt men, simultaneously running
Away and Moonwalking “toward officers—”
Superman metallurgists, sorcerers turning
Wallets, candy bars, car keys, phones into guns…

The Town Crier, Raymond Nat Turner © 2018 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

poetry

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


Related Stories

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
MrJoeSam’s Text Messages
12 June 2024
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR’s poet-in-residence, pays homage to San Francisco’s shipyard artist JoeSam who died peacefully on June 1, 2024, surroun
Raymond Nat Turner
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Dis-honest Broker
01 May 2024
"Dis-honest Broker" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence, recently performed at UpSurge!
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Raymond Nat Turner at the UpSurge Jazz Celebration
03 April 2024
 
Image of Refaat Alareer sitting in a crowd of graduates
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: If I Must Die, Refaat Alareer, 2023
13 December 2023
Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, a martyr of zionist state genocidal violence, has left us with a tale of resistance and hope.
Reese Piece…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Reese Piece…
15 April 2021
Salute to City of Angels’ son! He wrote, he wrote, he wrote And he wrote… Ramparts, The Progressive, The
First 100 Daze: A ‘new’ dance craze
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
First 100 Daze: A ‘new’ dance craze
27 January 2021
Everybody’s wild ‘bout this ‘new’ dance craze— this lewd, crude dance called “The 1st 100 Daze…”
mashing the state— Kristallnacht-style
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
mashing the state— Kristallnacht-style
20 January 2021
Kristallnacht came casting lead ballots, overthrowing Black elected officials and Massacring those that VOTED for them— 
This is what hypocrisy looks like…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
This is what hypocrisy looks like…
13 January 2021
“It's like writing history with lightning.“ — Woodrow Wilson on Birth of A Nation
Think…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Think…
06 January 2021
Think of peoples having the most tanks, the most drones, the most missiles, bombs, aircraft carriers, 
$election postmortem 
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
$election postmortem 
10 December 2020
It was the Latino Vote… No, it was the Latinix vote! No, it was Black Women! No, it was LGBTQ+ Black Women!

More Stories


  • Business Ghana
    Haiti, Africa, And the Unfinished Project Of Black Sovereignty
    15 Jan 2025
    In excerpts from a speech given in Accra, Ghana, BAR editor and contributor Dr. Jemima Pierre highlights the United Nations’ involvement in the 2004 coup d'état and the subsequent…
  • Pan-African Community Action PACA
    The DC Bus Fare Evasion Crackdown: Targeting, Detaining, and Surveilling the Black Working Class
    15 Jan 2025
    Washington, D.C., is implementing a new campaign intended to crack down on fare evasion. This bill, like many others of its kind, will serve as a tool deployed in the ongoing war against the…
  • Youth pose behind a Mozambique flag
    Black Alliance for Peace US Out of Africa Network
    AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #54
    15 Jan 2025
    Mozambique is experiencing a period of unrest provoked by recent elections. After unending suffering under neoliberal austerity measures and the encroachment of AFRICOM, the …
  • Black Alliance for Peace
    Los Angeles Fires: The Santa Ana Blowback of Capitalist Climate Change Neglect
    15 Jan 2025
    The fires that have been raging in southern California for days are destroying the cities and homes of tens of thousands of people. This disaster, driven by the worsening climate crisis, is…
  • Pavan Kulkarni
    The DRC’s Historic Case Against Apple Over Blood Minerals in its Supply Chain
    15 Jan 2025
    The war-torn country has accused the US-based global tech giant of war crimes, forgery and deception by using illegally extracted and smuggled minerals in its products.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us