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

2/4 Dance Don’t Cut It
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
18 Jan 2018
🖨️ Print Article
2/4 Dance Don’t Cut It
2/4 Dance Don’t Cut It

“Pay, or die…” the Death
Sentence Big Pharma-
Insurance Mob just issued
a neighbor; and a Frankenfood
experiment’s irritating my gut

The water smells swampy some days,
like bleach others; Tents grow in night
air like multi-colored mushrooms—crazy
cancer cells; Another school’s shuttered,
its teachers scattered in the wind, like
pencil sharpener shavings—Money for
Bombs, not for books—Wow, the wars
went from seven to nine this week…

Here they come again with Fear:
‘Freedom of Choice,’ binary bad
or worse options—hiking uphill
barefoot, in elephant excrement,
donkey dung to take one—with or
without Vaseline—from the1% again

I’m not sure I have another 8 yrs
for translating, deciphering slogans:
“Regime…change you can believe in!”
“Yes, we can…and bottle Jim Jones Juice!”
as silly spoils of celebrity-worship;
Isn’t it time for Adult Politics?

Isn’t it time to abandon Infantile
Exercises—searching for saviors
Every 2 to 4 yrs—and Nominate
Meeting More Than Four Corners;
Donate to Door-To-Door; Phone Bank
for Boycott; Campaign for Consciousness;
Support Shoe Leather-Street Heat running for
Raising roofs, planting food, curing cancer?

poetry

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio November 21, 2025
    21 Nov 2025
    In this week’s segment, we discuss a march to support Mumia Abu Jamal and all political and elder prisoners. But first, we hear about the latest climate change conference, COP30, and the limits of…
  • Cop 30
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    COP30 and the Failure of the Climate Conference Process
    21 Nov 2025
    The latest United Nations climate change conference, COP30, recently took place in Belem, Brazil. A people’s counter summit was also held, attended by indigenous Brazilians, Afro-Descendants, and…
  • Mumia Abu Jamal
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    March for Mumia
    21 Nov 2025
    Beginning on November 28, a March for Mumia Abu Jamal and will begin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and end on December 9 at S.C.I. Mahanoy prison in Frackville, Pennsylvania, where Mumia is being…
  • Trinidad and Tobago
    Clau O'Brien Moscoso , Erica Caines
    Trinidad and Tobago in the Crosshairs of U.S. Imperialism
    19 Nov 2025
    Sariyah Mohammad of Trinbago for Palestine and David Abdulah of the Movement for Social Justice joined National Co-Coordinator Erica Caines and Haiti/America Team Co-Coordinator Clau O'Brien Moscoso…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Eric Adams, Zionism, and Pre-Emptive Strikes Against Mamdani
    19 Nov 2025
    Eric Adams, New York City’s blustering and corrupt outgoing mayor, is working with his allies to undermine mayor elect Zohran Mamdani in a blatant power grab and a violation of all norms of democracy.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us