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

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


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Venezuela, Memory, and the Long Arc of U.S. Imperialism
    29 Jul 2026
    Memories of a sovereign Venezuela collide with the reality that it is now a U.S. vassal state.
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Neoliberalism to Trumpism: The Re-Normalization of White Supremacy as State Ideology
    29 Jul 2026
    The crisis of late-stage capitalism has stripped away the liberal disguise and revealed white supremacy as the official ideology of the U.S. state.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    STATEMENT: Question of Western Sahara, Tinguiri Mansour Omar, 1979
    29 Jul 2026
    “It is perfectly clear that the war of aggression waged by Morocco against the [Western] Saharan people is a purely colonial war.”
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Trash Panda Politics Guides the Black Misleadership Class’s Electoral Dumpster Dive
    29 Jul 2026
    The Congressional Black Caucus electoral strategy has turned the 2026 midterm elections into a dumpster dive for corporate interests and Zionist approval.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    U.S. Support of Israel is Absolutely an Issue of Affordability and Economic Populism…So Why Won’t the Democrats Discuss it as Such?
    29 Jul 2026
    The Democratic Party's continued support for Israel's genocide is not just a moral and political liability but also an economic one which impacts its voters, yet the party refuses to frame it as such.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us