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

2/4 Dance Don’t Cut It
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
18 Jan 2018
🖨️ Print Article
2/4 Dance Don’t Cut It
2/4 Dance Don’t Cut It

“Pay, or die…” the Death
Sentence Big Pharma-
Insurance Mob just issued
a neighbor; and a Frankenfood
experiment’s irritating my gut

The water smells swampy some days,
like bleach others; Tents grow in night
air like multi-colored mushrooms—crazy
cancer cells; Another school’s shuttered,
its teachers scattered in the wind, like
pencil sharpener shavings—Money for
Bombs, not for books—Wow, the wars
went from seven to nine this week…

Here they come again with Fear:
‘Freedom of Choice,’ binary bad
or worse options—hiking uphill
barefoot, in elephant excrement,
donkey dung to take one—with or
without Vaseline—from the1% again

I’m not sure I have another 8 yrs
for translating, deciphering slogans:
“Regime…change you can believe in!”
“Yes, we can…and bottle Jim Jones Juice!”
as silly spoils of celebrity-worship;
Isn’t it time for Adult Politics?

Isn’t it time to abandon Infantile
Exercises—searching for saviors
Every 2 to 4 yrs—and Nominate
Meeting More Than Four Corners;
Donate to Door-To-Door; Phone Bank
for Boycott; Campaign for Consciousness;
Support Shoe Leather-Street Heat running for
Raising roofs, planting food, curing cancer?

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


  • Black Politics and the 2022 Mid-Term Elections
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Politics and the 2022 Mid-Term Elections
    04 Nov 2022
    Dr. Anthony Monteiro is a Duboisian scholar and founder of the Saturday Free School for Philosophy and Black Liberation, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. He joins us from Philadelphia…
  • The Play Cousins Collective Serves the Needs of Black Families in Louisville, Kentucky
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    The Play Cousins Collective Serves the Needs of Black Families in Louisville, Kentucky
    04 Nov 2022
    Kristen Williams is Executive Director of the Louisville, Kentucky based Play Cousins Collective. Play Cousins Collective develops and facilitates programing and curriculum centering Black children's…
  • Dr. Al-Fatah Stewart Fights for Freedom
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Dr. Al-Fatah Stewart Fights for Freedom
    04 Nov 2022
    Dr. Al-Fatah Stewart has been held in the Rikers Island correctional facility in New York City for the last 43 months without trial. He recorded this message from Rikers Island in October 2022. His…
  • Politicians Make Black People the Face of Crime
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Politicians Make Black People the Face of Crime
    02 Nov 2022
    Manufactured crime panics are still a successful method of getting votes from white people.
  • SPEECH: Thomas Sankara to the United Nations General Assembly, 4th October, 1984
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    SPEECH: Thomas Sankara to the United Nations General Assembly, 4th October, 1984
    02 Nov 2022
    While the spirit of Thomas Sankara may be behind the recent coup in Burkina Faso, his vision remains an inspiration for everyone, everywhere, committed to anti-imperialism and third world autonomy.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us