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


  • The Black Alliance for Peace Welcomes Delayed Security Council Vote on Western Invasion of Haiti
    Black Alliance For Peace
    The Black Alliance for Peace Welcomes Delayed Security Council Vote on Western Invasion of Haiti
    26 Oct 2022
    The Black Alliance for Peace amplifies the demand of the Haitian people. UN representatives of the Peoples Republic of China and the Russian Federation must use their veto power to stop the…
  • Manufacturing Consent for the Containment and Encirclement of China
    Carlos Martinez
    Manufacturing Consent for the Containment and Encirclement of China
    26 Oct 2022
    Western media are waging a systematic propaganda campaign against China, to manufacture consent for the US-led new cold war.
  • Margaret Kimberley and Danny Haiphong on US War Propaganda and Billionaire Control of US Politics
    Danny Haiphong and Margaret Kimberley
    Margaret Kimberley and Danny Haiphong on US War Propaganda and Billionaire Control of US Politics
    25 Oct 2022
    Black Agenda Report editors and columnists Margaret Kimberley and Danny Haiphong discussed Ukraine, the U.S. oligarchy, and the Haitian struggle against U.S. and U.N. occupation.
  • Black Agenda Radio October 21, 2022
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio October 21, 2022
    21 Oct 2022
    Haiti's "white warlord" oligarchs destabilize that nation, and the decision in an upcoming Supreme Court case could threaten the legal rights of all federal benefit program recipients.
  • Haiti's White War Lords
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Haiti's White War Lords
    21 Oct 2022
    Jafrikayiti explains the history and activities of Haiti's white war lord oligarchs.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us