How will you pay for it?

How do you pay for
serial killers
cutting fingers off for
Souvenirs and urinating
on bodies of ‘foreign fighters—‘
Or defecating on the Koran?

How do you pay for
night vision goggles and snipers’
scopes peering in Afghan homes,
Lives and futures— or ugly white
phosphorus unicorns—or rainbow
shows blowing babies heads off?

How do you pay for
thugs kicking in Iraqi
doors at 4 in the morning and
spraying warm welcoming walls
and floors terrible crimson?

How do you pay for
Humvee hubris, ‘boots on the
ground;’ bases in far away places;
Aircraft carriers trolling the seven
seas, filling their waters with crushed
coke cans and shit, decade after decade?

How do you pay for
The Five Families—
Joint Chiefs of Theft—
their barbaric burn pit rituals of waste; their
greasy-thumbed Arthur Anderson accounting—
Pallets full of freshly printed $100 bills going
Poof, like morning dew in the desert?

How do you pay for
Assassination-A-Go-Go; Coup Of The Week;
peacock thrones and acrobatic diplomats
dangling on dicks of
Dictators, while juggling attache cases
crammed with cash—for overthrowing
Dreams and wishes of Peoples worlds away?

How do you pay for
Genocidal trade shows; horrific
Hospital bombings—ironically called
“Operation” Cast Lead, or some other
cute sounding name for mass murder?

How do you pay for
the Mother Of All Bombs (MOAB)
from Freddo in Mussolini mask—
Blowing up a mountainside in
Afghanistan?
How do you pay for
reigning 59 $110,000 missiles
on Syria to appear “presidential?”

How do you pay for
Hitlerite Haliburton-Boeing, military
parades damaging D.C.’s streets—
and F-16 flyovers at fuckin’ football
Games 14X—17 Sundays a year?

The bigger question
is
How will you pay for
the cleanup of depleted uranium
dumping, polluted bombing ranges,
leaden rifle ranges; And fifty states
of Flint water;
How will you pay for
powder-burned temples;
rope snapped necks; the
opioid outs—mounting
Scores of daily suicides;
broken brains, missing
limbs of young men and
Women; Their
Lifetimes of trauma for
Your robust 3rd quarters?

Former forklift driver/warehouse worker/janitor, Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet; BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. Read other articles by Raymond Nat, or visit Raymond Nat's website.