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

Dis-honest Broker
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
01 May 2024
🖨️ Print Article
UpSurgeNYC

"Dis-honest Broker" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence, recently performed at UpSurge!NYC at Sister's Bookstore in Harlem, NY. The show was a celebration of National Poetry and Jazz Appreciation Month.

Metallic music of shovels; Abrasions again on bare hands
Digging, digging, digging through twisted bones and
busted bricks of buildings. To backpacks, blankets, baby
body parts to rescue tiny arms and legs emitting whispers…

Obese bulldozers munching homes and olive trees;
Settlers snacking on bones of the evicted.
Aquifer flooded with sea water and sewage are now G-
Rated nightmares; And matter not to NFL, NBA bi-partisans

Forked tongue, Dis-honest broker, 
fluent in the ancient language of
Genocide 
Trots out tattered tropes for terror. Swears another Offal Office
oath on War House Bible—bathed in blood of 10s of millions—
Trail of Tears to Wounded Knee; Tulsa to Hiroshima; Korea to
Vietnam to Afghanistan…

Riddler/Joker—Dis-honest broker:
“You have a right to…” 
Be an aircraft carrier on the desert
Acting as a weapons lab conducting
Trade shows; Disguised as democracy
Acting as apartheid state; Concealing
Third Reich real estate practices—Go on
Step on the gas—and “Mow the grass!”

“You have a right to…” Quell them/Shell them!
Bombard them/Boneyard them!
Snipe them/Wipe them! Un-home them/Pogrom them!
Expel them/Farewell them!

“You have a right to…” Strangulate them/Annihilate them!
Bomb roads they’re instructed to travel— And let them all
Eat hot lead and gravel!

“You have a right to…” Kill them one-a-day… for years—
Daily… for decades… Until bloody bootprints become
Normal as “Ironclad!!!!”             Normal as Baghdad??

“You have a right to…” 22 days of carnage; provided
you Madison Avenue it: “Operation Caste-Lead!!!!”
“You have a right to…” Step on the gas—and
“Mow the grass!“

“You have a right to…” 51 days of slaughter—
just market it as: “Operation Protective Edge!!!!”
“You have a right to…” Step on the gas—and
“Mow the grass!”

“You have a right to…” Dr. Goebbels’ white phosphorus
prescriptions for human animals holding human shields;
Holding hostages; Holding hospital hideouts; Holding
House keys—for…                          3/4 of a Century…

© 2023. 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.

poetry
Jazz
Harlem

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
Declaration of Independence (for Donald "Duck" Bailey)
15 July 2026
Drummer men, drummer men, fluid loose-limbed rhythm-masters, were you born free?Did you drum? Did you drum? Did you drum
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Army of Artists (For My Friend Horace Silver)
17 December 2025
Harmony of a hug,Rhythm of a rose,Melody in the mirror
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, BAR poet-in-residence
Raymond Nat Turner at the UpSurge Jazz Celebration
03 April 2024
 
JoeSam art
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
MrJoeSam’s Text Messages
24 January 2024
MrJoeSam’s Text Messages
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.
a few flock notes for jaimie breezy branch
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
a few flock notes for jaimie breezy branch
07 September 2022
a few flock notes for jaimie breezy branch “The artist must elect to fight for Freedom or for Slavery” —Paul Robeson
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— 

More Stories


  • Roots of Imperial Policing
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Roots of Imperial Policing
    21 Jan 2020
    The US became deeply involved in global counterinsurgency after World War Two, said Stuart Schrader, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins University and author of “Badges Without Bo
  • Catch the “‘F’ the Police” Train
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Catch the “‘F’ the Police” Train
    21 Jan 2020
    On January 31 activists plan to confront New York City cops in protests over high transit fares and police brutality, under the banner “F.T.P,” according to Shannon Jones, of
  • Black Self-Defense is Important, But Ideology is Paramount
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Black Self-Defense is Important, But Ideology is Paramount
    21 Jan 2020
    Yafeuh Balogun, a leader of the Dallas-based Huey P Newton Gun Club, which advocates armed Black self-defense, said the club was inspired by the “founding of the Black Panther
  • MLK and the Black Misleadership Class
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    MLK and the Black Misleadership Class
    16 Jan 2020
    Dr.
  • Freedom Rider: Solidarity with Moms 4 Housing
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Solidarity with Moms 4 Housing
    15 Jan 2020
    Black women in Oakland confronted the austerity regime head-on, by seizing the housing their families need.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us