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

Only WE Can Save US…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
28 Sep 2016
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

As the farcial and nightmarish presidential contest winds into its final month, we try to make sense of the senseless, and point to the only avenue of possible salvation...

Only WE Can Save US…

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

If he farts before 6 it’s NEWS—

Trumping Standing Rock resistance,

Prison work stoppages nationwide,

Protests of police murders in Charlotte,

Tulsa, even football games—pro to

high school…

If she faints at 5 it’s NEWS—

If they ‘debate’

Resistance metastasizing like

Campaign lies—back to the back burner!

Every four-years,

Two years of

Dumbed-down,

Head-fixing, fear mongering sowing

Infantile illusions

Of bogeymen and women and

Mantras:

“Make us safe” “Save us”

Meditation pondering

Powerlessness…

We can do better

than planet-destroying parasites in

Pursuit of profits…

mystical market-driven men and

Women with mutilated imaginations

Who make bees and polar bears

disappear

We can do better

than poisoned water and

Poverty

We can do better

than porkers

Piggin’ out on pie charts

of our wealth for eternal war

We can do better

than worship violence—

Police state fundamentalism

Where, according to Old Testament,

they shoot ‘their own people’ and

Books become guns,

Traffic stops, CD sales… death sentences

We can do better

than stand-stolen-

Seminole-Sioux-Cheyenne ground with

concealed weapons on college campuses

We can do better

than prison-pipeline ‘schools’

Following money and blood

Crippling children’s spirits

We can do better

Taking to the streets,

Reservations, football fields, factories prisons—

universities where we teach ourselves to make

Revolution—taste paradise now—imagining

Socialist USA

Raymond Nat Turner © 2016 All Rights Reserved

BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performance artist. Find 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


  • Abolitionist Law Center
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Ending Life Without Parole, Death by Incarceration, in Pennsylvania
    11 Oct 2024
    Quinn Cozzens joins us to discuss the case of Derek Lee, convicted of felony murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole for a killing he did not commit. Derek Lee is challenging his…
  • Revolutionary Blackout Network Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Syria and Imperialism: A Revolutionary Blackout Network Conversation
    11 Oct 2024
    Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report Executive Editor, was recently a guest on the Revolutionary Blackout Network with hosts Nick Cruse and James Fauntleroy. This is an excerpt of their wide-…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Eric Adams and the Death of Black Politics
    09 Oct 2024
    The indictment of New York City mayor Eric Adams is the latest example of moribund Black politics. Rich donors and corporate media decide who will be elected to office, while the people’s needs go…
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist , Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    October 7th, The Election and Capitalist Crisis, A Conversation with Ajamu Baraka
    09 Oct 2024
    Margaret Kimberley and Ajamu Baraka discuss the US upcoming presidential election, and the historic events unfolding in Western Asia - where Israel continues its onslaught of the region with an…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Rethinking Race, Rethinking Class, Charles W. Mills, 1995
    09 Oct 2024
    “We need to give greater theoretical centrality to the fact that European conquest of the world has established what is in effect: global white supremacy.”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us