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

What did low Barr know?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
17 Feb 2021
🖨️ Print Article
What did low Barr know?
What did low Barr know?

Liars, liars your loaded dice/tilted table theater’s
on fire—
But prosecutors and gas-lighting lawyers concur on 
Empire… 

Questions are swirling in your gaseous Van Gough sky
senatorial cesspool, home of the bribe, land of the lie:
What did low Barr know and when did he know it?
who does Boss Tweet owe—and when does he owe it?
Why has a petite, pink-clad protester more arrests
on Capitalist Hill than the state made on 1/6?
Questions that must be put to your slimy bipartisan 
Politics…

II.

I look at all the ugly people snarling and storming
Capitalist Hill like Louisville—or some “shit-hole” 
country; And I can see clearly: music of shattering
glass military men love—its crunch beneath boots
slogging over chocolate cities; Flashbacks for “bad 
hombres” urinating on bodies; cutting fingers off
for souvenirs; defecating on the Koran; raping women
and men wearing uniforms the same color as their own—
white supremacist death squads melting back into ICE,
‘black’ sites and Hood-ish bases bearing bloody names— 
Back into prisons and patrol cars…

I look at all the ugly people snarling and storming
Capitalist Hill like Louisville—or some “shit-hole”
country; And I can see clearly: Clubber Williams
and Chokehold Johnson of the PBA; 
Officers Rotten and McNasty of FOP flashing badges; 
A machine gun-less Gloves Davis clone “boots on the
ground…” Not the first windows they’ve smashed or
doors they’ve kicked in …Flashbacks of ‘lighting up’
Families before ransacking/looting their homes—
before children Sandman mischief from their eyes…

I look at all the ugly people snarling and storming
Capitalist Hill like Louisville—or some “shit-hole”
country; And I can see clearly: monsters mutating
into men boarding planes before farmworkers, baby-
sitters, nurses and teachers— ‘Heroes’ empire lovers
go gaga over before football games; tripping over their 
“Thank you” for your ‘services’ like tongue-tied teens…

I look at all the ugly people snarling and storming
Capitalist Hill like Louisville—or some “shit-hole”
country; And I can see clearly: Mad Mike morphing
back into misogynist manager in his ‘right to work’
state—weekend warrior tailgating for Amerikkka’s
Team—or the Patriots or Jets—one keg away from… 
Lynch 
Mob…

© 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


  • Iker Suarez
    Mass Deportation as Ethnic Cleansing: on the Ongoing War
    12 Feb 2025
    The United States is a colonial empire, repressing and exploiting colonized peoples domestically and internationally. Mass deportations are a function of ethnic cleansing and a continuation of U.S.…
  • Black Alliance For Peace
    Black Alliance for Peace Condemns Trump’s Declaration of War on Palestine
    12 Feb 2025
    Donald Trump's recent statements claiming U.S. ownership of Gaza are the latest iteration of U.S. bipartisan imperialist policy. 
  • Jake Johnston
    Where Does the Money Go? A Look at USAID Spending in Haiti
    12 Feb 2025
    The Trump administration is dismantling USAID, intending to absorb its mission into the State Department. USAID's engagement with Haiti demonstrates the insidious nature of the agency and how…
  • Judi Rever
    Paul Kagame’s Foray in Eastern Congo Leaves Thousands Dead and Sparks Fears of a Broader war
    12 Feb 2025
    Rwanda’s brutal assault on Goma has unleashed more agony for the Congolese, who are already traumatized by three decades of war.
  • Ramzy Baroud
    Politics or Empty Rhetoric? Examining Trump’s Call for Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza
    12 Feb 2025
    Donald Trump recently made several statements declaring his intent to commit a full-scale ethnic cleansing of Palestine's Gaza Strip. However, this idea, like many others, may be unfeasible and…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us