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

Breathe the Bern…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
20 Apr 2016
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Our poet in residence muses upon the collective madness engendered by the quadrennial presidential election.

Breathe the Bern…

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Right around this time ‘left’ pundits and
Pontificators hitch worn star-spangled
suspenders to an ol’ mule and pretend they’re
Alcoholics— invoking the serenity prayer:

“God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things that I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.”

They claim theirs is the highest form of self-
discipline; like a form of Yoga, a sacred set of
Breathing exercises in 4yr-cycles—foundation of
their practice is regulation of oxygen to brain cells…

But it looks like the Hokey-Pokey:

You clamp your left nostril down,
Until it feels like you’ll drown…
You clamp your right nostril down,
Until your ‘hood’s like Jonestown—

Then you do the shit again in 4 yrs
As the wily 1% stokes your fears…
Set yourself back another decade
With the practicing of this charade…

Raymond Nat Turner © 2016 All Rights Reserved

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


More Stories


  • Bruce Dixon
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Democrats Complicit in Israel’s Crimes
    23 Aug 2024
    We revisit this piece from the late Bruce Dixon, BAR Managing Editor and co-founder, where he explained that there is no difference between the Democrats and Republicans on the issue of Palestine and…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    KHive Snitches, Right Wing Liberals, and Palestine
    21 Aug 2024
    The allegation that only Trump threatens democracy is a useful ruse for the Democratic Party. They continue their support for genocide and ethnic cleansing and fiercely attack anyone who dares to…
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist , Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    From Pan Africanism to Afropessimism: Palestine and the Degeneration of Black Politics
    21 Aug 2024
    For decades, most Black political commentary has expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people. Recently, a new phenomenon has appeared, particularly on social media platforms, which accuses all…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    POEM: Apologies to All the People in Lebanon, June Jordan, 1982
    21 Aug 2024
    June Jordan’s painful apology for US complicity in zionist terrorism in Lebanon, and against the Palestinian people.
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Dan Kovalik on Israel's War on Gaza
    21 Aug 2024
    Ann Garrison caught up with attorney, journalist, and author Dan Kovalik just as the Coalition to March on the DNC stepped off from Chicago’s Union Park on the first day of the Democratic National…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us