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

Last Days of Pompeo…or of ‘Identity’ Politics?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
21 Mar 2018
🖨️ Print Article
waterboarding
It's not waterboarding if it's deisel, and it's not torture if she's leaning in.

His lips gurgled watery words,
his nostrils were an aching incinerator…
Still, she taunted and tormented him about
his acting; after she’d ordered him
Water-boarded for the 83rd time…

Screams were symphonies when she ran
her Black Site—and NO, Negroz, it wasn’t
a place you could go get your groove on—
Wasn’t Cloud 9, or Psychedelic Shack—and NO,
Negroz, these mad monsters are not nice, like in
Movies…Wrecking central nervous systems,
Demolishing personalities, making healthy people
Helpless ain’t nothin’ but a party to them…

and when her confirmation hearing comes,
You may wanna ask Lady Sadist: Does she
Pine for rack and wheel, thumbscrew times?
Would she have personally presented Natives with
smallpox-enhanced blankets; presided over Tuskegee
syphilis experiments—or been a gleeful guard at Auschwitz
or Buchenwald?
Does she meditate watching Mengele movies? Does she
Masturbate to torture tapes—cackling, “Who says
Torture doesn’t work?” Does she devour human flesh,
sans Hannibal Lecter mask?

There’s blood on her hands—
is it from smashing the glass ceiling?

Raymond Nat Turner © 2018 All Rights Reserved

Raymond Nat Turner is BAR's poet in residence. You can find much more of his work, and how to contact or book him 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

Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Reflections after the June 12th March of Disarmament, Sonia Sanchez, 1982
18 December 2024
“I have come to you tonite not just for the stoppage
Protest for Palestine at the White House
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Trigger Warning
22 November 2023
Trigger Warning Palestine’s the Answer— What was the Question?
Our ‘democracy’
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Our ‘democracy’
23 July 2021
Shangri-La—untaxed, socially-distanced champagne- caviar, Cayman Island, yacht crowds who
Pigment of your Imagination: Black magic mascots, props and sops?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Pigment of your Imagination: Black magic mascots, props and sops?
15 July 2021
Could the pigment of your imagination cause Black magic mascots, props, sops— Black faces in high places—
A known known…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A known known…
08 July 2021
“…there are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known
Twerkers of the World you might…(Or when they go low we get high?)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Twerkers of the World you might…(Or when they go low we get high?)
01 July 2021
“History repeats itself,  first as tragedy, second as farce.” —Karl Marx
The Town Crier’s Big Tooth Fund (For Drs. Rosenthal, Sapir and Ferdowsi)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
The Town Crier’s Big Tooth Fund (For Drs. Rosenthal, Sapir and Ferdowsi)
23 June 2021
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs…” —Karl Marx
The Town Crier’s List of Who’s Who in the capitalist state machine
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
The Town Crier’s List of Who’s Who in the capitalist state machine
16 June 2021
“Ain’t no power like the power of the people— ‘cause the power of the people don’t stop!” bouncing 
Ladee Blu: Another Monroe Doctrine delivery system 
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Ladee Blu: Another Monroe Doctrine delivery system 
09 June 2021
Raytheon’s craven raven Co-signing for mass murder: “Mowing the grass…” Now… Ladee Blu on a fool’s errand dis- seminating
MOVE Tulsa to Gaza…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
MOVE Tulsa to Gaza…
02 June 2021
The Mass Shooting Of The Day— this time was in San Jose… Do you know the way to San Jose?

More Stories


  • Social Democracy Will Not Save Us
    Benjamin Woods
    Social Democracy Will Not Save Us
    16 Nov 2022
    The author makes the case that liberalism is a dead end and that socialism is the only tool for Black liberation.
  • Colia Clark Presente!
    Kim Ives
    Colia Clark Presente!
    16 Nov 2022
    Colia Clark was a veteran of the Black Liberation Movement who worked with Medgar Evers, who was also affiliated with the NAACP and who served as Executive Secretary of the Student Non-Violent…
  • Migration and Climate Emergency in North Africa
    Ray Bush
    Migration and Climate Emergency in North Africa
    16 Nov 2022
    Imperialist wars and capitalist predation have accelerated the pace of migration from North African nations. The climate crisis worsens structural inequality between the global south…
  • COP27 Deliberations Reaffirm Imperialist States as Main Obstacle to Ending Climate Change
    Abayomi Azikiwe
    COP27 Deliberations Reaffirm Imperialist States as Main Obstacle to Ending Climate Change
    16 Nov 2022
    Developing countries and mass organizations at the COP17 summit continue to demand compensation for damage and loss created by fossil fuel production in industrialized capitalist nations. The…
  • Identity Without Responsibility
    Salifu Mack
    Identity Without Responsibility
    16 Nov 2022
    There have been endless news stories about basketball player Kyrie Irving. But insight on celebrity culture and acknowledgement of the confusion that is deliberately created in this country is…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us