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

toe tag trio: coup combo
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
20 Mar 2019
🖨️ Print Article
toe tag trio
coming soon to a latin american, asian or africa country near you.....

A right wing hawk flies humanitarian
aid in…Then sits, hen-like,’til it hatches
Bombs…
and packs of hungry dogs ripping rotting
flesh from headless cadavers. As scents of
sulfur and fresh death waft in whitewashed
songs. “It’s The Same Old Song,” old chestnut
Terror, torture, hunger, misery:
stomachs growling, automatic weapons scatting,
bombs comping murder music in minor;
Smoking guns, crimson streets, pockmarked
buildings and bodies; mass graves and make-
shift morgues—forensic songs in the key of death

The Toe Tag Trio is a Limbo band.“How low can
you go?” is their motto for rehabilitating bottom
feeders from the swamp—letting blood—seizing
Oil, gold, coltan, bank accounts and countries

Theocratic high priest of plutocracy, hypocrisy:
Piano/vocals; Death-squad-mushroom cloud man:
Bass/vocals; Oil company cutthroat: Drums/vocals
belting old standards with ‘new’ twists:
“Stolen Moments:” dead children’s eyes sucked out by flies;
“These Foolish Things Remind Me Of…” The Third Reich;War:
“One Note Samba;” “Take Five:” The Pentagon disappearing
Taxpayer trillions—“Everything I Have Is Yours—” in reverse;
and“This Masquerade,” sovereignty, “It Don’t Mean A Thing,”
when an operative’s encrypted message reads “Do Nothing Till You
Hear From Me,” ‘president!’ “How Long Has This Been Going On?”

Hypnotic harmony, overpowering pulse. And we react
weakly,
dancing like damp shadow puppets, “Until the Real Thing
Comes Along… ” and “…Everything Must Change…”

© 2019. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performing artist, and an official of the National Writers Union. 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

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
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?
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
Pigment of your Imagination: Black magic mascots, props and sops?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Pigment of your Imagination: Black magic mascots, props and sops?
15 July 2021
Could the pigment of your imagination cause Black magic mascots, props, sops— Black faces in high places—
A known known…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A known known…
08 July 2021
“…there are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known
Twerkers of the World you might…(Or when they go low we get high?)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Twerkers of the World you might…(Or when they go low we get high?)
01 July 2021
“History repeats itself,  first as tragedy, second as farce.” —Karl Marx
The Town Crier’s Big Tooth Fund (For Drs. Rosenthal, Sapir and Ferdowsi)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
The Town Crier’s Big Tooth Fund (For Drs. Rosenthal, Sapir and Ferdowsi)
23 June 2021
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs…” —Karl Marx
The Town Crier’s List of Who’s Who in the capitalist state machine
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
The Town Crier’s List of Who’s Who in the capitalist state machine
16 June 2021
“Ain’t no power like the power of the people— ‘cause the power of the people don’t stop!” bouncing 

More Stories


  • Travels Through El Perú Profundo
    Clau O'Brien Moscoso
    Travels Through El Perú Profundo
    08 Mar 2023
    The people of Peru continue to protest the coup which ousted President Pedro Castillo Terrones. Clau O'Brien Moscoso reports from Peru.
  • How the U.S. and Canada are Wooing Latin America and the Caribbean to Front for their Plan to Invade Haiti
    Travis Ross
    How the U.S. and Canada are Wooing Latin America and the Caribbean to Front for their Plan to Invade Haiti
    08 Mar 2023
    The U.S. and Canada are using Caribbean and Latin nations to act as fronts, willing dupes, in their plans for the next occupation of Haiti. Travis Ross explains in the second of a three-part report.
  • Why the Huwwara Pogrom was Inevitable
    Maureen Clare Murphy
    Why the Huwwara Pogrom was Inevitable
    08 Mar 2023
    The attack by Israeli settlers on the town of Hawwara was no aberration. It was just one example of the violence inherent in an apartheid state.
  • Reconciliation Does Not Mean Forgetting in Nicaragua
    Jill Clark-Gollub
    Reconciliation Does Not Mean Forgetting in Nicaragua
    08 Mar 2023
    It is important to understand the truth about the 222 people recently released to the US who were convicted of treason in Nicaragua for savage acts of violence against their people.
  • Those Who Die for Life – like Hugo Chávez – Cannot Be Called Dead
    Vijay Prashad
    Those Who Die for Life – like Hugo Chávez – Cannot Be Called Dead
    08 Mar 2023
    The tenth anniversary of the death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez reminds us of his commitment to serve the people of his country, and to fighting for sovereignty for his nation and all the…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us