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

Weaponized Condolences of a Warfare State
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
18 Nov 2015
🖨️ Print Article

By BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Terror attacks against French civilians have become the excuse du jour for the US surveillance state, for ramping up drone murders of other civilians, and military boots on the ground everywhere from Syria to south Philly.

Weaponized Condolences of a Warfare State

By BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Blood, guts, severed heads and limbs
litter rubble. Blood has not had time to
coagulate. Wall Street piranha cry
crocodile tears on terror. Opening bomb 
bays, their “Hearts go out,” $110,000 a pop.
Job-creators of ruin, gift themselves another
War.

It could have been Port au Prince, Kinshasa,
Tripoli, Damascus, Baghdad, Boston, London,
NYC. But this time, it was The City of Lights.
Some of us listen to leaders without legs to
stand on, fooling fools and babies. We were
Briefly innocent; never naïve around shocking,
Awful carnage in our names—crimes against
Humanity…

The hospital bombing, Nobel Peace Prize-
winning war criminal cries anti-freeze tears.
Palestinians Feel the Bern of white phosphorus
in corporate catechism: “Yes, we can” seamlessly
wage endless war, and do regime “Change you
can believe in.” It’s still the New Amerikkkan Century
And a Golda-plated Iron Lady Rusts In Peace, waiting
on the wings of a Predator drone. She grows impatient
to Start smearing the paint—crimson, ivory, navy—
for War!

Electoral Lilliputians lost their minds and moral
compasses, trading organizing for orgasm with the
2nd Coming of Christ. They were once Anti-war
Activists. Now they’re just junkies with 7-year
itches—8-year hitches; eunuchs and nuns taking
Mule dung wafer vows of silence; worms, crawling
around searching for imaginary openings to ‘organize’
on the Commander’s watch.

The world can’t wait for them to become clean and
Sober!
The world can’t wait for them to quit organizing
Halloween parties. Parties dressing bogeymen on
elephants as the end of the world; War criminals  
on mules as Mother Theresa, scaring out the vote;
Helping fuel the Wehrmacht with Fear!

Raymond Nat Turner © 2015 All Rights Reserved

Besides being Black Agenda Report's poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and accomplished performance artist.  Find more of his work, and give your event an upsurge with the UpSurge Jazz Poetry Ensemble at http://www.upsurgejazz.com/

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


More Stories


  • Erica Caines
    The Chicago Raid in Context: Connecting the Wars at Home and Abroad
    08 Oct 2025
    The fight against fascism is a fight against racism and capitalism. The raid on a Chicago apartment building proves that the system’s violence at home and its wars abroad share the same logic and the…
  • The Black Alliance for Peace Condemns Establishment of Colonial Military Governance Over Haiti by UN Security Council
    08 Oct 2025
    The imperialist west is responsible for Haiti's deterioration through policies designed to keep the nation poor and powerless. Now those same powers are offering what they claim are solutions.
  • Jim DeBrosse
    Who profited off 7 October?
    08 Oct 2025
    Unusual stock market activity is one of the indicators that the Israeli government had prior knowledge of the Hamas action which took place on October 7, 2023.
  • Robert Inlakesh
    Hamas, Trump, Israel, and Who Accepted What Ceasefire – Analysis
    08 Oct 2025
    As it stands, there is no chance that a ceasefire can be implemented, according to the current parameters of the Trump-Netanyahu plan.
  • Chris Gilbert , Cira Pascual Marquina
    A Story of Resistance and Renewal: The Palmarito Afro-Descendant Commune (Part I)
    08 Oct 2025
    Afro-Venezuelans discuss syncretism, anti-colonial resistance, and community organization on the southern shore of Lake Maracaibo.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us