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


  • Testi-lyin’
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Testi-lyin’
    07 Apr 2021
    Northeast, midwest, southwest, south, down south, up south, out south—south  of the Canadian border—Slouched down in his cruiser, slow-rollin’ the ‘hood; Or a-
  • Biden-Harris Look Ready to Keep U.S. In Afghanistan—Say No!
    Black Alliance For Peace
    Biden-Harris Look Ready to Keep U.S. In Afghanistan—Say No!
    07 Apr 2021
    The new Democratic administration seems determined to sabotage an agreement to end the “longest war.”
  • MLK Was a Radical Who Hated Not Only Racial Subordination But Class Exploitation
    Sylvie Laurent, interviewed by Arvind Dilawar
    MLK Was a Radical Who Hated Not Only Racial Subordination But Class Exploitation
    07 Apr 2021
    King explicitly linked the value of human dignity to the material conditions necessary to enable people to live a decent life.
  • Letters from Our Readers
    by Jahan Choudhry, Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers
    07 Apr 2021
    In "On Anarchism and Black Revolution" Peter James Hudson examines the historical roots of critiques of anarchism and its relationship to Black liberation movements.
  • BAR Book Forum: Short Meditations on Christina Sharpe’s “In the Wake”
    Troizel Carr
    BAR Book Forum: Short Meditations on Christina Sharpe’s “In the Wake”
    07 Apr 2021
    Being in the wake, in the afterlives of slavery…is to be caught in the reverberating aftermath of a long disaster, a durational dance with danger, with terror.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us