Amerika was built on busting up families. They're just making Amerika great again.
“I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes”
— Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, III, Human Impersonator
Bottom of the boat
rocking, rolling, thrashing
Violently— the quaking black
hole now her life. She had
No idea where she was
on the awful ocean,
Traveling shackled for
thousands of miles;
belly beginning to bulge
with the baby of her foul-
smelling rapist and his
“Zero Tolerance” policy
for
tears…
She would bore four more for
a ‘Master,’ who’d sell her
to the West Virginian wanting
her in the worst way—
Ripping picaninnies from
nursing breasts to become
bucks and wenches, working
fields and lusts of slavers—“that
was then,” they say, “this is now:”
“Mama, Mama, Papa, Papa, Mama, Papa…”
tears of toddlers flooding searing shrieks,
Torturous cacophony; the satanic symphony,
counterpoint to cool BOP, ICE acronyms—
Amerikkka's great again—
At separating children from parents;
At spinning swastikas into scripture…
Once upon a time, mint julep-sipping,
Bullwhip-wielding christians in castles whitewashed by
Black labor, worked children and parents to death—
“And everyone lived happily ever after…”
© 2018. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
Raymond Nat Turner is Black Agenda Report's poet in residence. Click his name in red to see more of his work here at Black Agenda Report. For much more of his work, or to contact him for booking and other purposes visit http://upsurgejazz.com.
As part of the Black Agenda Report Book Forum, we interview scholars and activists about a recent article they’ve written for either an academic journal or popular publication. Sometimes we discuss…
A group of popular Caribbean organizations released a statement against foreign intervention in Haiti and calling for an end to the militarization of the region by the U.S. and the West.
The Dominican Republic’s racist President is once again scapegoating Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent for his government’s terrible economic policies. This time, his target is poor pregnant…
Kenyans have been protesting President William Ruto’s Finance Act that increases taxes on essential goods while making concessions to foreign capital.
