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

Save the Children..from maturity
BAR Poet-in-Resident Raymond Nat Turner
25 Sep 2019
🖨️ Print Article
Save the Children..from maturity
Save the Children..from maturity

Why do I cry when I
see sixteen year-olds
Fearless and wise beyond
their years, wielding swords
of science—slaying share- 
holders’ senators and clean-coal 
congressmen on Capitalist Hill?

Why do I cry when I
see sixteen year-olds
Fearless and wise beyond
their years, teaching lobotomized
Lilliputians climate justice
ain’t neurosurgery or rocket science?

Why do I cry when I
see sixteen year-olds
Fearless and wise beyond
their years, speaking truth
to People—99%—real Power
in D.C., L.A., New York, 
Paris, San Francisco, London—
163 countries and counting?

Why do I cry when I
see sixteen year-olds
Fearless and wise beyond
their years, teaching old fools 
in four year-long sandboxes
how infantile “supporting”
charlatans huffing and puffing 
Hot air is?

Why do I cry when I
see sixteen year-olds
Fearless and wise beyond
their years, steer themselves clear
of Foundation Father seduction,
Speak Truth To Power careerists and
Drone Ranger-Slick Willy war criminals?

Maybe it’s because my Mom put me 
on a picket line at nine; dropped me
off in Compton at eleven with a ream
of flyers and instructions to go
Door-to-door; meet her in a parking
lot when I finished?
Maybe it’s because sixteen year-olds are
realizing it takes hundreds, thousands—
millions of street heat degrees raising 99%
Consciousness 
to 
cool 
our
planet
1 
degree

© 2019. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

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

Climate Crisis

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
Mother Earth Is Angry!
01 October 2025
Mother Earth's angry! She’s shaking herHead and sistar-gurling her hands on herHips … She’s saying, “Enough dinosaur-
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
If We Respond to the Genocide in Palestine the Same Way We’re responding to the Climate Crisis, We Should Expect Many More Loss of Lives
23 July 2025
The climate crisis and genocide in Gaza share the same root: capitalism’s willingness to sacrifice the masses.
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
The fire this time … (as Amiri tolt me)
29 January 2025
“Scratch a lie—find a thief !”
Black Alliance for Peace
Los Angeles Fires: The Santa Ana Blowback of Capitalist Climate Change Neglect
15 January 2025
The fires that have been raging in southern California for days are destroying the cities and homes of tens of thousands of people.
Krys Cerisier
COP29 Contradiction and the Climate
18 December 2024
Journalist Krys Cerisier attended the COP29 climate conference, where they reported and conducted interviews with activists f
Abayomi Azikiwe, Black Agenda Report Contributor
COP29 Summit Marked by Acrimonious Debate Over Emissions and Finance
27 November 2024
Annual climate gathering reflects divisions between the industrialized states and the Global South.
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
Unprincipled, Unstrategic, and Unsustainable: e(U)logy for the U.S. Climate “Movement”
13 November 2024
The ineffectiveness of the climate movement during the 2024 election signals its inevitable collapse.
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
Why All Hurricanes Should Be Named “Jim”
16 October 2024
Hurricanes Helene and Milton are the result of a long legacy of segregation, environmental racism, and extraction.
Max Ajl
Dismantling Green Colonialism: Stages of a Just Transition?
09 October 2024
Dismantling Green Colonia
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
Blue (MAGA) In Green (Or, U.S. Bourgeois Environmental Groups Prioritize the Democratic Party Over Environmental Justice Principles)
18 September 2024
The Democratic Party markets itself as the party of environmental protection while pursuing policies that are endangering all

More Stories


  • ​​​​​​​ 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…
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    History’s Hired US
    11 Dec 2024
    "History’s Hired US" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Efia Nwangaza
    The Dobbs Decision: Increased Black Maternal Deaths
    11 Dec 2024
    Black women, already leading in maternal mortality rates, are now at even greater risk of complications and death as more states impose stricter abortion laws.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us