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

Puerto Rico: Shock and Awe Exposing Capitalism’s Criminality
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
04 Oct 2017
🖨️ Print Article
poet

Water is life…and
even saliva’s in short supply…
For drum-tight mouths, sandpaper throats.
Yodeling bellies cave in on spines,
as evil scents of sewage and death float in,
Refashioning an island into a spreadsheet

Cell towers, power lines snapped like
legos—electricity’s a distant memory—
Refrigerated insulin’s useless.
Oxygen tanks ran out eons ago—
Generators and motorboats are
Music where ATMs froze and
Desperation’s setting in…
celebrity charity’s touching—
But, not the Billions needed…

Cuba’s been ready with doctors—
Venezuela offered oil,
Jamaica wants to jump in—
Even earthquake-ravaged
Mexico lined up supplies!
But, an embargo of greed,
masked in maritime law,
Blocks arteries of foreign-
flagged ships, primed to pump
Blood to Puerto Rico’s body—
food, fuel, water, medicines—
Once again exposing capitalism’s
Bankruptcy

Is there a method to
Boss Tweet’s madness, his
Shock and awe? His
0 empathy, victim blaming,
As animals and people perish; his
cruel, callous debt sermons while
His sordid career floats on
Bankruptcy?

Maybe there’s a method to
his five day fusillade of
Tweets at NFL kneelers;
NBA War House-no shows?
Maybe fire and fury,
Killing 25 million Koreans, makes better
Business sense than delivering food and water,
Saving 3 million Puerto Ricans?
Perhaps “it’s business, not personal—“
Regime change in Venezuela
Trumps diaper change
for Boricuan babies?

Isn’t it elegant,
Gnawing Wall Street’s pound of flesh—
Katrina-style—from island bones?
Succulent FEMA cost-sharing;
Juicy PREPA electrical grid;
Tender teacher pensions;
Storm-skewered Commonwealth
Shish kabob for bondholder,
Bankster, disaster capitalist
contractor/sub-contractor jackals—
How refined!
And for dessert:
Puerto Rican-free Pudding—
Served on high-rise
luxury hotel, golf course,
Post-hurricane playground for the
Rich parasite sponge cake—yum…

Don’t Blame Maria—blame
Hurricane IMF; Hurricanes World Bank,
Goldman-Sachs, Citbank… Blame
Hurricane Financial Management Oversight Board;
Hurricane Taxation Without Representation—
Begging the question:
“Is they is, or is they ain’t citizens?”
Debt cancellation/Reparation/Self-determination
Now!

Raymond Nat Turner © 2017 All Rights Reserved.

Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performance artist. Find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.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

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Army of Artists (For My Friend Horace Silver)
17 December 2025
Harmony of a hug,Rhythm of a rose,Melody in the mirror
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
MrJoeSam’s Text Messages
12 June 2024
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR’s poet-in-residence, pays homage to San Francisco’s shipyard artist JoeSam who died peacefully on June 1, 2024, surroun
Raymond Nat Turner
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Dis-honest Broker
01 May 2024
"Dis-honest Broker" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence, recently performed at UpSurge!
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Raymond Nat Turner at the UpSurge Jazz Celebration
03 April 2024
 
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.
Reese Piece…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Reese Piece…
15 April 2021
Salute to City of Angels’ son! He wrote, he wrote, he wrote And he wrote… Ramparts, The Progressive, The
First 100 Daze: A ‘new’ dance craze
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
First 100 Daze: A ‘new’ dance craze
27 January 2021
Everybody’s wild ‘bout this ‘new’ dance craze— this lewd, crude dance called “The 1st 100 Daze…”
mashing the state— Kristallnacht-style
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
mashing the state— Kristallnacht-style
20 January 2021
Kristallnacht came casting lead ballots, overthrowing Black elected officials and Massacring those that VOTED for them— 
This is what hypocrisy looks like…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
This is what hypocrisy looks like…
13 January 2021
“It's like writing history with lightning.“ — Woodrow Wilson on Birth of A Nation
Think…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Think…
06 January 2021
Think of peoples having the most tanks, the most drones, the most missiles, bombs, aircraft carriers, 

More Stories


  • Palestinian children stand amid the rubble of destroyed buildings
    Ramzy Baroud
    The Injured Gaza Boy and His Drawing: Do Palestinians Have the Right to Self-Defense?
    21 Feb 2024
    It is interesting how the colonizers and the colonized continue to build relations and solidarity around the same old principles. The Global South is, again, rising in solidarity with the…
  • Protest banner
    Palestinian Youth Movement
    Free Palestine. Stop Cop City.
    21 Feb 2024
    It is clear that Stop Cop City represents one of conjunctural spear tips for expanding the existing systems of counterinsurgency that span Africa, Asia, and the Arab world.
  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio February 16, 2024
    16 Feb 2024
    This week we discuss the bipartisan consensus on punitive immigration policies and a community organizing solidarity event in the Bronx and call for freedom of a political prisoner. But first we talk…
  • NAARPR
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black and Brown Coalition for Palestine
    16 Feb 2024
    Frank Chapman and Hatem Abudayyeh join us from Chicago to discuss the city council vote calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and update us on events in Palestine and in Chicago.
  •  Immigrant Justice Network
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Bipartisan Consensus for Punitive Immigration Policies Continues - Part 1
    16 Feb 2024
    Aly Wane is on the advisory board of the Immigrant Justice Network. He joins us from Syracuse, New York to discuss the failure of the recent immigration bill and the bipartisan consensus on punitive…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us