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

Amiri made me think…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
25 Feb 2014
🖨️ Print Article

by Raymond Nat Turner

What muthafracker would

Bomb the Motherland and

Call it humanitarian? Mc Cain?

 

Amiri made me think…

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

I.

Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh…

Calling all Africans

All Africans

Africans

Africans

All humanity, anyone human, humane

Calling all Africans

All Africans

Africans

Africans

Continental and Diasporic—

Flaunt dense temporal

Lobes, clutch elephant

Memories in the

Age of…Austerity

Age of…Alzheimer’s

Political dementia!

 

Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh…

Calling all Africans

All Africans

Africans

Africans

Clutch memories of the

Pyramid scheme that

Kidnapped and brought us here

It rattles in its death

Throes and must be buried

 

Remember when we

Were light workers,

Sentinels of light,

Righteous star seeders

Helping bring it down?

 

Emit infrasounds if

You hear me when I

Say this muthafracker’s

A marathon—not a sprint—

An inevitable struggle

For socialism, no speed-

Bump, Iceberg Slim or

Supposed third road can stop,

Amiri made me think…

 

II.

Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh…

Calling all Negroz

Mentally ill— fidgety,

Flighty, dialed into dumb shit

Losing all ability

To analyze, THINK

Independently, carry

On conversations,

Respond to the environment

 

Yeah, there’s power in

The Now, but memory

Peels cataracts from

Third eyes, so we peer

Into futures free of fractured

Spirits, cupped hands, crimson

Streets and filthy rivers…

Amiri made me think

 

III.

Amiri made me think

What muthafracker would

Bomb the Motherland and

Call it humanitarian? Mc Cain?

 

Which one could turn the

Earthquake in Haiti

Into military operations,

The buzzards’ banquet for

Disaster capitalists? Buffett?

 

Which one would invite

Another brother for beer

With his arresting officer,

Clarence Thomas? Shaq?

 

Which muthafracker

Could march on Morehouse

Give a“Niggeraintshit!”

Commencement address &

Get a standing ovation?

Rush? O’Reilly? Hannity?

 

Which one would watch BP

Blow up the Macondo Well,

Kill eleven workers,

Millions of mussels, shrimp,

Crabs, sea turtles and birds &

Call it the Big Bank Theory/

Too Big To Jail? Bush? Palin?

 

Heard this PhD professor proclaim:

It’s the complexitiesandnuancesofthepracticalapplicationofthehistorical

ContinuationofpostracialimperialisttesticularprowessofpaxAmericana—

Anyway, an unlettered, low-life,

Like me wouldn’t understand,

So he “unpacked” it of bovine odor,

Broke it down into laymen’s language

Like The “Wink-wink, Nod-nod strategy—”

In other words, Iceberg Slim bombed Africa

Wink-wink, Nod-nod, to fool white folks

That way, it don’t look like he playin’ favorites,

But, soon as he free from them Repubicans and

Outta office and set up his foundation he be

Free to give Africa all the aid it need…

 

Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh…

Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh…

Amiri made me think—

Marx & Lenin let me look…

 

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com.

 

Raymond Nat Turner © 2014 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


  • Keston Perry
    Why a Caribbean Zone of Radical Peace is Vital and Must Be Realized Through Working-Class Unity
    03 Dec 2025
    We must struggle for a radical peace in the Caribbean. Maurice Bishop offers us a guide.
  • Brahim Rouabah , Corinna Mullin
    On the Coloniality of Solidarity: Iran, Imperialist Aggression, and the Western Left’s Blind Spot
    03 Dec 2025
    The 'pure' leftism of the Western academy denounces Iran's state while ignoring its real crime: defying imperialism. This selective solidarity has become a weapon of empire, disarming the very…
  • John Perry , Roger D. Harris
    It’s Not Only About Venezuela: Trump Intends a Wider Domino Effect
    03 Dec 2025
    One-fifth of the U.S. Navy now sits in the Caribbean, positioned to initiate regime change in Venezuela and beyond. This is a campaign to cleanse the hemisphere. First Venezuela, then any government…
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio November 28, 2025
    29 Nov 2025
    In this week’s segment, we talk to a man whose brother was killed by an NYPD officer who the police commissioner, reappointed by Zohran Mamdani, refused to fire from his job. But first, we discuss a…
  • China Changes Everything
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    China Changes Everything
    29 Nov 2025
    Jacqueline Luqman is a radical activist based in Washington DC, and the co-founder of Luqman Nation, an independent Black media outlet. She joins us from Washington to discuss a newly published book…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us