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

Make me do it…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
25 Mar 2014
🖨️ Print Article

by Raymond Nat Turner

Make me do it, one Hellfire Missile each—

They’ll all be in a better place: with you

Lord, make me do it! Make me do it!

 

Make me do it…

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

“Precious Lord, take my hand/ Lead me on, let me stand …”

 

God is a person with a logo and $500 an hr lawyers

He knows waterboarding is why the caged bird sings &

Without its CPUSA punch line, the FDR and A. Phillip

Randolph anecdote is a fractured fairytale, pathetic parody:

 

Take my hand and make my palm turn upward facing the

Heavens taking fresh faces of Franklin from holy bundlers,

Banksters, Wall Street Warlords, armament manufacturers,

Drug and insurance charlatans and high priests of fossil fuel,

Make me a warlock, make me meet every Tuesday—take my

Left hand, lord, make me pick up my black lacquered, gold-

Trimmed Montblanc and signoff on another careful signature Strike…

 

There’s an Afghan grandmother tending

Her small garden plot and teaching her

Grandson how to pick ripened okra,

In Pakistan there’s a young man ordering

At an outdoor café and oh, yes, Yemen, yes

There’s also Somali fishermen fighting

Progress, precious lord, take my hand and

Make me do it, one Hellfire Missile each—

They’ll all be in a better place: with you

Lord, make me do it! Make me do it!

 

Confederate flags and swastikas fluttering

In Ukraine winds of change we can believe

In make me signoff on spare change for regime

Change; I’m feeling like Teddy, now: “Oh-oh,

 

Ooo-ooo, ah-ah, Oh-oh, I like the way you make me feel!”

Make me destabilize Venezuela, yes, lord, make me do it!

 

Make me keep Gitmo open 8 years after I promised

Its closure; Make me go after Snowden, Manning,

Assange and put a $2 million reward on the terror

Threat sitting off our shore for forty years In Cuba;

Make me ignore Abu Jamal, Peltier, Shoatz and other

Old outlaws who had their days in court— in a post-

Racial age there’s no place for divisive old ideas like theirs;

Yes, lord, make me do it! Make me do it! Make me do it!

 

Yes, lord, make me sing like Al Green, make me fool

Stupid Negroz again, like goober dus’, black cat dander,

Slick Willy’s shades and saxophone did, make me make

Them think voting for me is the most important thing ever

For their freedom, more important than the Abolitionist Movement,

Anti-lynching movement, the BPP, SNCC,

CORE, NAACP, the Watts, Detroit, Newark rebellions,

Nat Turner’s Rebellion, John Brown’s Raid on Harpers

Ferry and the Civil War combined; more important than

That nappy-headed foolishness of Paul Robeson, Malcolm

X and moron Robert Williams; make me make them think

Happy-dancing on ice for me was making history, more

Important than the Civil Rights, Black Power, Anti-War,

American Indian and Women’s Movements combined;

Make me make them like me, follow me on Facebook and

Stare catatonically at my tweets; make me make them watch

Me work crowds on Youtube, giving my NAS commencement

Speech at Morehouse, my annual Fathers Day NAS speeches to

Poor Black men; make me make scholars act like soft head

Simpletons; make me make them swear that Dr. King would’ve

Been about Africom and boots on the ground and— Nobel Prize

Aside, would’ve have shot Bin Laden himself had he, King, lived!

 

Make me say “Drill, baby, drill!” a thousand times and forgive BP

For blowing up the Macondo well killing 11 workers, tens of

Millions of mussels, shrimp and crabs, forgive them for with legions of

Lawyers, scientists, public relations experts they know not what they do;

make me speak of clean coal with a straight face

And nukes in the face of Fukishima; Yes, lord, make me do it!

Make Me do it! Make me do it! Make me do it! Make me do it!

 

Make me crush Occupy like cockroaches under my combat boots,

Make me get with Simpson and go after Social Security, Medicare,

Medicaid; make me listen in on phone calls, monitor keystrokes,

Watch tweets, posts, pokes, blogs, bank, medical and library

Records— make me make the 1st and 4th Amendments illusions

Like objects in David Copperfield magic shows; Make me do it!

Make me do it! Make me do it! Make me do it! Make me do it!

 

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


  • Keir Rodney Starmer
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    The UK Left Lose Despite a Labour Party Victory
    12 Jul 2024
    Roger McKenzie joins us to examine the recent elections in the UK that brought the Labor Party back to power after 14 years of Tory governance. We discussed how Labour is not the traditional left…
  • Abortion Care Tennessee
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Tennessee Abortion Ban Impacts Marginalized Communities
    12 Jul 2024
    Robyn Baldridge joins to discuss the fight to access abortion care in Tennessee, where they are navigating some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country - including the criminalization of…
  • Joe Biden speaking
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Joe Biden's Electoral Prospects
    12 Jul 2024
    Margaret Kimberley was recently a guest on the Sputnik News program, Fault Lines, with co-hosts Jamarl Thomas and Melik Abdul. They discussed the recent debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump,…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Project 2025 Continues the Historic Racist, Fascist Project
    10 Jul 2024
    Project 2025 is just the latest in a series of conservative think pieces which outlines how republicans should wield presidential power. The outrage surrounding it ignores democrats’ collusion with…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    TESTIMONY: Opposition to Military Assistance Act of 1949, W. E. B. Du Bois, 1949
    10 Jul 2024
    On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of NATO, we reprint W.E.B. Du Bois’ 1949 powerful testimony against the US militarization of Europe and the world.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us