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

Mengele Medicine… Free
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
12 Jul 2017
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR poet in residence Raynmond Nat Turner

This week our poet examines the links between the blankets settlers distributed among Native Americans and capitalism's reckless disregard of human, environmental and medica ethics.

Mengele Medicine… Free

by BAR poet in residence Raynmond Nat Turner

I.
My mom inspected
hell holes, City of
Angels,
ruled by devils.

Captured Angelinos
complained about
Not getting water.
Red punch, sí— water, no;
As the Founding Fathers,
The Framers—of warriors
and truth-tellers—intended…

Outside the city,
concertina wire veils
Loveless gray walls
keeping a grim gulag
out of sight, out of mind;
Concealing the work camp,
pharmaceutical
playground, infested
with sadistic torturers;
and Mengele medicine men
standing on skeletons—
suffering side-effects
of pulse-less persons,
$500.00 an hour lawyers.

Mengele medicine men,
practicing goober dust,
black cat dander, four-
leaf clover, rabbit’s foot,
aspirin for cancer quackery.
Experimenting with
effects of no water,
sugar water, fracked water,
black water, white bread
on diabetic shock subjects—
Side effects of remote-
controlled Death Panels,
posing as parole boards…

II.
Warriors, Freedom Fighters’
Sacrifices paved our way—
Heroic lamp-lighters
Long for light of day
And they gotta be Free, Free, Free
‘Cause they hold the Key, Key, Key

Resistance isn’t crime
When tellers of truth fight back
From cages of endless time
And peculiar tenure-track
And they gotta be Free, Free, Free
‘Cause they hold the Key, Key, Key

Torture arisoners, Prisoners of War…)

(1st stanza 1st time Rubato; Ballad feel;
1st stanza 2nd time to Groove)

Raymond Nat Turner © 2017 All Rights Reserved

BAR's Ppoet in residence, Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performance artist. We'll have to put up a booking page for him here soon. Meanwhile you can find much 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


  • Berthony Dupont
    How the OAS Works for Imperialism in Haiti
    07 Oct 2026
    The armed groups in Haiti are not a spontaneous wave of banditry, but a scheme orchestrated by imperialist powers in concert with a reactionary and subservient Haitian political class. The…
  • The Coalition for the Elimination of Imperialism in Africa
    CEIA Launches International Pan-African Solidarity Campaign for the Republic of Cuba
    07 Oct 2026
    A coalition of Pan-African and socialist organizations has launched an international campaign to defend Cuba, arguing that African peoples must remember the sacrifices Cuban internationalists made…
  • Dr. M. Reza Behnam
    Three Years of Genocide: How ‘Never Again’ Lost Meaning in Gaza
    07 Oct 2026
    If international law and justice are buried in the rubble of Gaza, the global community will ultimately be digging its own grave.
  • Sami Al-Arian
    Why Hamas believed the status quo was more dangerous than its 7 October gamble
    07 Oct 2026
    Three years into Israel's genocide in Gaza, the consequences of a decision driven by siege, settlement expansion, and assaults on Al-Aqsa are still unfolding.
  • BAR Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Report October 2, 2026
    02 Oct 2026
    In this week’s segment we hear about the right-wing politics of the anti-migrant movement in South Africa, ANC failures, and upcoming elections in that country. But we begin with the first and only…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us