This is what hypocrisy looks like…

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence

13 Jan 2021

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“It's like writing history with lightning.“ — Woodrow Wilson on Birth of A Nation

The blood’s mopped up— “This is not who we are…”
“We’re better than this…” the bleeding continues—
“This is not who we are…” the body count mounts—
“We’re better than this…” The most militarized
failed state in history… ”This is not who we are…”
red, white and blue peacocks prancing the planet
pontificating on elections… “We’re better than this…”

Better than “Trial By Combat—” bellicose ballet
Choreographed counterclockwise, opening up
Capitalist Hill like Lansing?

Better than Blackshirt rites of passage—
bloodsport parting barricades to Red Seas?
Better than Mississippi stand downs—working out
Ruling-class contradictions Third Reich-style?
Better than one sect of sleazy senators, corrupt congress
members huffing and puffing 1% hot air versus another sect
backed by neo-nazis with 19th century needles stuck in their
Arms…

Better than adrenaline of “U-S-A, U-S-A” chanting
storm troopers reenacting kicking in Afghan and
Iraqi doors predawn?
Better than their corporate paymasters surveilling
Class-struggle infecting every cell of dying empire?

Alert: the FBI found watermelon seeds and chicken
bones—so it had to be Black Lives Matter/Antifa
in white face portraying ‘protestors’ spun from white
supremacy straw! It had to be Birth Of A Nation brutes—
bloody boots on desks; marauding, rampaging, ransacking,
Looting, live-streaming, re-tweeting, urinating/defecating
on carpets!

It had to be Black Lives Matter/Antifa
in white face playing noble warriors—confederate sons—
Apartheid army fighting for minority rule; Cat’s paw for
Capitalism on chocolate colony streets—Puerto Rico of the
Potomac?
It had to be Black Lives Matter/Antifa
in white face acting like shooters/looters
who looted
Iran’s oil/overthrowing Mossadegh;
Guatemala’s fruit/ousting Árbenz—
Congo’s conflict minerals/Lumumba’s life—
Chile’s copper/Allende’s life!

It had to be Black Lives Matter/Antifa
in white face acting like shooters/looters who
Hijack Haiti’s leaders; loot Libya and shit
Shahs, Papa Docs, Pinochets on the peoples’
heads and shiny capitol floors?

It had to be Black Lives Matter/Antifa
in white face acting like shooters/looters who
Looted Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw,
Seminole, Powhatan, Lenape, Pequot, Iroquois
Land
Akan, Bambara, Dogon, Fulani, Hausa, Igbo,
Mandingo, Mende, Senufo, Susu, Wolof, Yoruba
Labor!
The blood’s mopped up— “This is not who we are…”
“We’re better than this…” the bleeding continues…

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

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