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

How Long?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
25 Apr 2018
🖨️ Print Article
civilian casualties
Collateral damge, civilian casualty..... how long?

How long? Too long…
How long? Too long…
How long? Too long…
How long? Too long…
have massacres become
‘clashes’ on tongues of
talking heads and pens of scribblers

How long? Too long…
How long? Too long…
How long? Too long…
How long? Too long…
have ‘other’ peoples’ children
become bomb-test babies, named
Collateral Damage; Civilian Casualty

How long? Too long…
How long? Too long…
How long? Too long…
How long? Too long…
have wallets, car keys,
cell phones, candy bars,
become guns in raised black hands

How long? Too long…
How long? Too long…
How long? Too long…
How long? Too long—

Or, until aggrieved
People mistake donuts
for bullseyes; and
$elections
for signals to RISE…

© 2018. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Raymond Nat Turner is Black Agenda Report's poet in residence. Find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

poetry
Department of War

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


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    White Power
    17 Sep 2025
    The power structure in the U.S. can be boiled down to a system of might, and white, making right. Donald Trump has exposed its rotten foundations and the two-faced collaborators who keep it running.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: U.S., The Caribbean, and the Future, Tim Hector, 1984
    17 Sep 2025
    “There has been divide and rule in the modern Caribbean with a vengeance, all in the interest of US hegemony over the economic, military and political destiny of the Caribbean as a whole.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Neocolonialism in Africa, from the IMF and the World Bank to the International Caucasian Court for Prosecuting Africans
    17 Sep 2025
    These are remarks prepared for a 09/16/25 Covert Action webinar on Neocolonialism in Africa.
  • Jon Jeter
    How Charlie Kirk’s Murder Exposes Free Speech as a Tool for American Exceptionalism
    17 Sep 2025
    The assassination of a far-right demagogue raises the question: when does 'free speech' become a tool for inciting violence? Nations like South Africa and Brazil have decided that some speech is not…
  • Africa Climate Summit
    Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Africa Climate Summit Reflections Part 2: The Youth Are Getting Restless…and That’s a Good Thing
    17 Sep 2025
    “The youth are getting restless. I can't hear you, Let them hear you all the way to Washington, The youth are getting restless, Own creation, The Youth are Getting Restless, And once again a nation,…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us