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

  • Arizona State Prison Laborers
    Michael Sainato
    Corporations are Making Millions of Dollars From U.S. Prison Labor
    25 Jan 2022
    A Freedom of Information Act request shines a light on how much private corporations and government agencies have been exploiting prison labor during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • On the Biden Plantation
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    On the Biden Plantation
    19 Jan 2022
    The idea that Joe Biden would provide harm reduction was created to help the unpopular candidate secure an electoral victory.
  • SPEECH: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., All Labor Has Dignity, March 18, 1968
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    SPEECH: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., All Labor Has Dignity, March 18, 1968
    19 Jan 2022
    Martin Luther King was assassinated when he supported Black workers on strike in Memphis, Tennessee.
  • The Biden-Harris Administration is a Political Expression of the Empire’s Crisis of Legitimacy
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    The Biden-Harris Administration is a Political Expression of the Empire’s Crisis of Legitimacy
    19 Jan 2022
    The crisis of legitimacy is becoming more and more obvious. Joe Biden exemplifies oligarchic rule and a system in decline.
  • Waiting for a Schmo: Theater of the Absurd!
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Waiting for a Schmo: Theater of the Absurd!
    19 Jan 2022
    Waiting for a Schmo: Theater of the Absurd!
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us