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.
This week the Black Misleadership Class, sexual violence and colonialism, and the crisis of US imperialism were on your minds.
Black and brown volunteers were considered both “essential” and “dispensable” in past disease-ridden US conflicts, just as they are in today’s Covid crisis.
Immigrants that moved to Britain as children were deported to Jamaica as “foreign criminals.”
The celebration of Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste reflects the continued priority of elite preferences over the needs and struggles of ordinary people.
A significant portion of sports franchise wealth can be traced directly to the oppression and displacement of Black and Brown bodies.
