A poem by Raymond Nat Turner

Issue 7 · Spring-Summer 2020 (#6-7)

Shooting and looting started: 400 years ago

Shooting, looting, scalping, lynching,

Raping, torturing their way across the continent — 400 years ago —

Colonial settler thugs launched this endless crimson tide rolling down on

Today…

Colonial settler thugs launched this endless crimson tide leaving in- visible yellow crime scene tape crisscrossing Tallahassee to Seattle; San Diego to Bangor…

Shooting Seneca, Seminole, Creek, Choctaw, Mohawk, Cayuga, Blackfeet,

Shooting Sioux, Shawnee, Chickasaw, Chippewa before

Looting Lakota land; Looting Ohlone Land—

Looting Ashanti, Fulani, Huasa, Wolof, Yoruba, Ibo, Kongo, Mongo, Hutu, Zulu…

Labor.

Colonial settler thugs launched this endless crimson tide — hot lead storms —

Shooting, looting Mexico for half of New Mexico; a quarter of Colorado; some of

Wyoming and most of Arizona; Looting Mexico for Utah, Nevada and California

So, next time Orange Mobutu, Boss Tweet, is dirty like Duterte — howling for shooting;

Next time demented minions raise rifles to shoot; Remind them that

Real looters wear Brooks Brothers suits;

Or gold braid and junk medals ‘cross their chests. Real looters — with Capitalist Hill

Accomplices — Steal trillions Not FOX-boxes, silly sneakers, cheap clothes…

Raymond Nat Turner is Black Agenda Report’s poet in residence and is an accomplished performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

Return to Left Turn #6-7 Table of Contents

Originally published elsewhere