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
  • omnibus

Piece Process
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
23 May 2018
🖨️ Print Article
Israeli sniper prepares to implement the piece process.
Israeli sniper prepares to implement the piece process.

Breathe, Relax, Aim, Sight, Squeeze
it’s a joy-stick; a video game to him
He has orders to “light up” anything that moves;
“Mow the grass, one blade at a time…” “One shot,
one kill…”
So far, he’s bagged a man on crutches, 3 disabled, 2 children

Azriel stalks victims in the valley of death; studies
them through his scope; taking careful aim; punching
tight little holes in heads and torsos—distant targets—
They’re sudden spray, pink haze floating above spots
where they stood. No regret. No sorrow for families…

A plume of black smoke from flaming tires curls
into his crosshairs, his snake eyes nesting in sand—
a nano second too late—
Another child’s head ‘clashes’
with a butterfly bullet from a
football field away—
Crimson skull fragments
explode from the grapefruit-sized exit wound;
Spent cartridges, his ‘kill brass,’ pile up in the
sand…
Ah, the rules of engagement
What’s bone, arteries—another amputated leg—
got to do with it/the piece process: shoot one man,
Terrify a thousand? Don’t ‘our’ finest train there?

poerty

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


Related Stories

Ready for the Roaring ‘20s?
BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
Ready for the Roaring ‘20s?
08 January 2020
This Orange Age outrage— Reich of the child’s cage Cancer at fourth stage— Rogue state’s rampage…

More Stories


  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist , Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    A Discussion with Ajamu Baraka on People(s)-Centered Human Rights, a Framework Born of Struggle and Crisis
    11 Dec 2024
    The Black Alliance for Peace just launched its North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights. Ajamu Baraka and Margaret Kimberley discussed why this project is so necessary.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    INTERVIEW: France and the Colonial Roots of Black Citizenship, Maboula Soumohoro, 2021
    11 Dec 2024
    “How do you fight racism in a land where racism obviously exists, the far right is ascendent, but race is not accepted as a category?”
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    From Relative “Peace” to Chaos: The First Phase of a New War Returns to Syria
    11 Dec 2024
    The fall of the Syrian government is being heralded by Western liberals and "leftists." The collapse is not the liberation that is being presented by the US and its corporate media partners.
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    French Court Convicts French-Cameroonian Journalist Charles Onana of Speech Crime
    11 Dec 2024
    A French criminal court has convicted a journalist for writing dissident history about Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
  • Jon Jeter
    The White Settlers’ Bizarre Economic Strategy of Terrorizing Black People
    11 Dec 2024
    Jordan Neely's killing and the subsequent acquittal of Daniel Penny can be seen as part of the reactionary existential panic felt by whites whenever the country experiences growing economic…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us