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

PIMP: Paper In Militarists’ Pockets (Business as usual…)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
24 Mar 2021
🖨️ Print Article
PIMP: Paper In Militarists’ Pockets (Business as usual…)
PIMP: Paper In Militarists’ Pockets (Business as usual…)

$13 billion aircraft carriers, $10 pencils
and $500 hammers, renamed “portable
hand-held transcribing devices” and
“impact fasteners;” so war-profiteer pimps—war
lords of Wall Street—can prance the planet with
Pockets looking like they’ve got the mumps!
Mirrored by their henchmen—
gold-braided, junk metal chested generals—and
Schmo Bidens, Schmuck Cheneys, Slick Willys, 
Ws, Boss Tweets, Drone Rangers…of The Game…
When they go high…
We
Go
low

Mideast wars: trillions and counting—still,
the sky’s the limit for finding fire-breathing
dragons threatening our freedoms—freedoms
flowing through pipelines 8,000 miles away…
Still, the sky’s the limit bankrolling Egyptian, Israeli,
Jordanian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Lebanese, Latvian,
Estonian, Polish, Filipino, Tunisian cutthroat/thugs…
When they go high…
We
Go
low

NEWSFLASH: Ol’ Blak Schmo just struck Syria,
Killing twenty-two, remaking his bones looking  
presidential…
NEWSFLASH: swinging rhythms of hammers, 
hip harmonies of saws bent on housing the un-
housed are renegade in The Game—outta pocket—
“Cost too much” for guerrilla pimps…in The Game
When they go high…
We
Go
low…

“Universal single-payer healthcare for all?! 
What you hoes been smoking?! Who the hell 
gonna pay for it?!”
When they go high…
We
Go
low…

“A Green New Deal?! We’ll slap the taste out
your mouths —the only ‘Green New Deal’ you
gettin’ tastes like the backs of our dead president-
Filled hands!!” 
When they go high…
We
Go
low…

“Cancel student debt?!  Scurvy bitches, you 
outta pocket—you know the rules of The Game!!”
When they go high…
We
Go
low…

“$15 an hour minimum wage?! What?!
Have you lot lizards lost your damn minds?!”
When they go high…
We
Go
low…

“Guaranteed annual income?! Why, if you
sluts don’t shut the fuck up you’ll be wearing
three shoes—two on your feet and one up…!!”
When they go high…
We
Go
low…
When they go high…
We
Go
low…
In the race
to
the
Bottom…

© 2021. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Seven surgeries…

Seven surgeries and missing left leg
later, her gnarled left hand still sends
signals her missing fingers can’t act on—
And she can’t write right-handed…
These are just a few of her least favorite things
about the warfare state of warlords of Wall Street

Left eye blind; left ear deaf; Still he has
surround sound nightmares with
weaponized impotence. And guerrilla
guilt ambushes him in broad daylight—
since his kills are no longer Lombardi Trophies…
And his family practiced ‘social-distancing’
long before physical-spacing was misnamed
during the pandemic…
These are just a few of his least favorite things
about the warfare state of warlords of Wall Street

These are just a few of their least favorite things
about the warfare state of warlords of Wall Street
These are just a few of their least favorite things
about the powder sugar platitudes politicians
parrot—repeat ad nauseam—at press conferences
And from FOX-boxes: (5 X)
“Boots on the ground,” “in harm’s way,” “friendly 
fire,” “god bless our brave fighting men and women
around the world…”
© 2021. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.       

BAR’s poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished performing artist. You can find much more of his work at https://www.youtube.com/user/zigilow

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at comments@blackagendareport.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: Poem for Walter Rodney, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, 1981  
11 June 2025
“any where or world where there is love there is the sky and its blue free
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A few lines for the Poet Ojenke...
21 May 2025
RIP: Rise In Poetics to Ra
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
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Love My Black Job
11 September 2024
Love my Black Job— Black Student Union Job! Hired at L.A. City College As “The Peoples Poet!”
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Enemy of the Sun, Samih al-Qasim, 1970
29 May 2024
Read against the terrible incineration of Rafah today, this poem of resistance and refusal, by Pa
Image of Refaat Alareer sitting in a crowd of graduates
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: If I Must Die, Refaat Alareer, 2023
13 December 2023
Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, a martyr of zionist state genocidal violence, has left us with a tale of resistance and hope.
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?
Another June 1
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Another June 1
07 June 2023
                                       
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
16 February 2022
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
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

More Stories


  • Dr. Helyeh Doutaghi
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Palestine Solidarity Under Attack: A Conversation with Helyeh Doutaghi
    11 Apr 2025
    Our guest is Dr. Helyeh Doutaghi. She was Deputy Director of the Law and Political Economy Project at Yale University Law School until she was targeted by Zionist groups dedicated to silencing anyone…
  • The Break
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    The Break NYC and the Need for a Socialist, Independent Mayoral Candidate in New York City
    11 Apr 2025
    A new organization, The Break NYC, has recently formed and is dedicated to finding and endorsing an independent leftist committed to staying in the race and appearing on the ballot. Two members of…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Cory Booker, Confused Liberals, Obama's Reappearance, and the Dangers of a Fake Movement
    09 Apr 2025
    Any “movement” that leads protest back to the Democratic Party is, by definition, dangerous. Criticism of Donald Trump cannot be a defining feature of change. 
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    SPEECH: White Supremacy in U.S. History, Theodore W. Allen April 28, 1973
    09 Apr 2025
    “The principal aspect of United States capitalist society is not merely bourgeois domination but bourgeois white supremacist domination.”
  • Hands Off protest
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    HANDS OFF NATO? Not Palestine? Who got the memo?
    09 Apr 2025
    The Democrats’ HANDS OFF rallies included “HANDS OFF NATO” and excluded “HANDS OFF PALESTINE,” but not all rally goers got the memo.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us