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

if it takes 100 years
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
06 Dec 2017
🖨️ Print Article
if it takes 100 years

I am the North Star—
Hope; Never wavering, organizing,
burning thorough bars, walls, wire—
I am consciousness of all
creatures, crystalline water,
clean, sweet air, black soil
From forgotten reservations

I am non-GMO, organic apples,
pears, lettuce, tomatoes, spinach
Springing from beads of sweat
mixed with midnight oil—
I am not the latest sneakers, phones
from Black Friday Madness,
Celebrity Worship or
Dumbed-down gossip ‘bout ‘stars’

I am coagulated blood
of gunned down doctors wafting from
Women’s reproductive rights—
Flowering from fertilizer of guilt
I am freedom, loving
Whomever I choose…

I am single-payer
Healthcare rising from Big Pharma
body-slams/lies of lobotomized politicians;
I am affordable housing
clubbed from corrugated cardboard sleep;
I am free education—
Peace studies writhing free of
handcuffs, cutting off circulation…
I am smoldering ashes of a
burned down Black Baptist Church
Repudiating ‘race’ with pain

I am revolution—
Socialism passing freely, back and forth
between metal detectors/bomb-sniffing dogs—
Arriving just moments ago:
…Having been here forever…

Raymond Nat Turner © 2017 All Rights Reserved
Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performing artist. Find much more of his work at http"//upsurgejazz.com.

poetry

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • The Editors, Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: The Peril of Mispronouncing “Parsley,” Sorayda Peguero Isaac, 2021
    13 Nov 2024
    Dominican author Sorayda Peguero Isaac on the persistence of anti-Haitianism.
  • Abayomi Azikiwe, Black Agenda Report Contributor
    Implications of a Second Trump Term for Working Class and Oppressed Peoples
    13 Nov 2024
    Irrespective of the rhetoric that characterized the campaign, the world’s majority will continue to be compelled to struggle against imperialist exploitation and oppression.
  • Jon Jeter
    Why Kamala Lost: The Democrats’ Anti-Black Electoral Strategy
    13 Nov 2024
    The Kamala Harris campaign for the 2024 presidential election was a display of the democratic party's willingness to abandon the most loyal segment of their base to remain fully committed to their…
  • Tunde Osazua
    Violence and Extraction in Mozambique: How Neo-Colonial Forces and Corporate Interests Undermine Security
    13 Nov 2024
    Western corporate interests have targeted Mozambique to exploit its natural resources, using tactics of destabilization and neoliberal austerity measures to weaken the nation. While these imperialist…
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Unprincipled, Unstrategic, and Unsustainable: e(U)logy for the U.S. Climate “Movement”
    13 Nov 2024
    The ineffectiveness of the climate movement during the 2024 election signals its inevitable collapse. But from the rubble, a new movement dedicated to the working class can be built.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us