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

A Poet's Proposal for DT's Inauguration
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
10 Jan 2017
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Word is that president-elect Donald Trump still has performance openings for next week's inaugural. In the selfless and noble spirit of public service, our poet kindly offers his own services, and anxiously awaits a response from Rump tower.

A Poet's Proposal for DT's Inauguration

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Bet you wonderin’ how I knew

Few are willin’ to perform for you?

I heard it through the grapevine

Also on TV, radio and online…

I ain’t A-list—

F-list, maybe?

Not a seven-figga n**** or War House Hoet in the

Retinue the Drone Ranger plays like plastic kazoos—

Yet, I’m willing to serve, sir:

Call it Patriot Act III!

Willing to audition, practice, rehearse—gratis—

get on the back of a Greyhound bus, brown bag,

greasy fried chicken, like the good ol’ days…

Apply a plastic smile, applaud on cue, shuffle, shake hands with

Strong-arm Williams, Sheriff Stephen Judas Clarke, Thom-ass

Clarence, and other warlike Bassackwards Tribal leaders

I’m willing to get William Withers with you, sir:

It’s my appointed duty

To let you use me

Get me in a crowd of right-wing racists and act real rude to me—

‘Cause I wanna spread the news:

That if it trends this good gettin’ used

Come on, use me ‘til you use me up—

My fifteen-minutes of FLAME!!

Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performance artist. Find more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

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 Book Forum: Samantha N. Sheppard’s “Sporting Blackness”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Samantha N. Sheppard’s “Sporting Blackness”
    17 Jun 2020
    Black memory is a muscle trained, flexed, and disciplined by colonialism, enslavement, and racial terror, as well as collective Black struggle.
  • BAR Book Forum: Kristen R. Ghodsee’s “Second World, Second Sex”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Kristen R. Ghodsee’s “Second World, Second Sex”
    17 Jun 2020
    Socialist ideas about the inextricable links between class, race, and gender predate the concept of intersectionality. 
  • ​​​​​​​Re-Embracing Internationalism and Class Solidarity in the Time of #BlackLivesMatter
    Berna Ellorin and Adrian Bonifacio
    ​​​​​​​Re-Embracing Internationalism and Class Solidarity in the Time of #BlackLivesMatter
    17 Jun 2020
    The struggle against systemic racism and the police state in the US is integral and linked to the struggle against US wars of aggression overseas. 
  • Black-Outs, ‘Black Lives Matter’ and Black Power
    Erica Caines
    Black-Outs, ‘Black Lives Matter’ and Black Power
    17 Jun 2020
    Community control of police and prison abolition have been completely removed from the conversations dictated by a mainstream and complacent narrative.
  • Caribbean Workers and Capitalist Geography: An interview with Marion Werner
    The Public Archive
    Caribbean Workers and Capitalist Geography: An interview with Marion Werner
    17 Jun 2020
    Global Displacements is an examination of the impact of the global organization of capitalist accumulation and exploitation on the life and labor of Haitian and Dominica
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us