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

Don't Play that Song
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
12 Sep 2018
🖨️ Print Article
this is what we do overseas
Don't Play that Song....

Don’t Sing That Song ‘bout

Bombs bursting in air,

Rocket’s red glare

Gave proof through the bus

40 children were dead.

Don’t Sing That Song

that “supports the troops”

Kicking in doors at 4AM;

Urinating on bodies

of Afghan fighters;

Defecating on

the Koran; Cutting

off ears and fingers—

Sporting them like

macabre trophies…

Don’t Sing That Song of

twilight’s last gleaming;

and perilous flight of

Hellfire Missiles from

Predator Drones—

white boy toys draining

treasure and blood:

Bankrupting us morally

Don’t Sing That Song—

‘bout a warfare state

with money for missiles,

Leaden water; collapsing

bridges; broken down

trains; Tent Cities and

citizens curled up on

cardboard—chanting,

“Spare change—

you can believe in?”

Don’t Sing That Song—

that slave masterpiece—

‘bout broad stripes on

brown backs; bright stars

in scrambled brains—Home

of the brave—gunning

down Black men in the streets

Don’t Sing That Song

Giving comfort to

War House Hitler-lovers

on Capitalist Hill,

White Supreme Court, slave

master statues, and military bases

named for confederate traitors

Don’t Sing That Song

Marvin prosecuted

for its soullessness—

Rene Marie face-

lifted with Every Voice—

as Nobel Drone Ranger

rammed her under the

bus with his Peace Prize—

Don’t Sing That Song

Jimi’s guitar tried

for war crimes at Woodstock!

Our poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished performing artist. Find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

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

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


More Stories


  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Open Letter to Marxists, Gwendolyn M. Patton, 1975
    23 Sep 2026
    “...the science for revolutionary change…is forged by human persuasion and building social consciousness based on the class analysis which sees the struggle against racism as central.”
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    The Symone Sanders Minstrel Show Demonstrates the Desolation of the Black Misleadership Class
    23 Sep 2026
    Symone Sanders interview with Hasan Piker exposed her as a bad-faith interlocutor who uses identity as a cudgel while remaining silent on the poverty, pollution, and police violence that plague the…
  • North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights
    Fergie Chambers Extradition: A People(s)-Centered Human Rights Analysis
    23 Sep 2026
    The U.S. extradition request for Fergie Chambers is an attempt to use Spanish courts to extend a domestic repression campaign against political opposition.
  • Jacqueline Luqman
    The Perfect Victim Narrative Applied To Foreign Policy Only Keeps U.S. Imperialism Alive
    23 Sep 2026
    The demand to call out alleged crimes in Iran or Cuba while those countries face annihilation from the U.S. and Israel is a refusal to see those people as human beings worthy of protection.
  • Charisse Burden-Stelly, PhD
    Twentieth Century Red Scares in the United States
    23 Sep 2026
    Red Scares are a recurring feature of the U.S. political tradition aimed at criminalizing anticapitalist politics through accusations of foreign infiltration and conspiracy. The NSPM-7 and the report…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us