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


  • BAR Book Forum “Sports and Black Struggle”: Interview with Dewitt King
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum “Sports and Black Struggle”: Interview with Dewitt King
    21 Sep 2022
    In this feature, we interview organizers, journalists, scholars, and athletes working at the intersection of sports and Black struggle. We ask three general questions to all contributors and two…
  • My two new lil nieces: Session 1 Lesson 1
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    My two new lil nieces: Session 1 Lesson 1
    21 Sep 2022
    My two new lil nieces: Session 1 Lesson 1 “And you very small persons will not have to die if you make yourselves heard! So come on, now, and TRY!” — Dr. Seuss
  • Survivors Uncensored: Voices from Rwanda and the Rwandan Diaspora
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Survivors Uncensored: Voices from Rwanda and the Rwandan Diaspora
    21 Sep 2022
    Most reporting on the Rwandan 1994 atrocities was false and driven by the Clinton administration's need to hide its culpability. The book Survivors Uncensored allows Rwandans to tell their own…
  • Amidst the Biden Administration’s Forever-Wars Policy in Africa, BAP Launches a Month of Action Against AFRICOM (U.S. Africa Command)
    Black Alliance For Peace
    Amidst the Biden Administration’s Forever-Wars Policy in Africa, BAP Launches a Month of Action Against AFRICOM (U.S. Africa Command)
    21 Sep 2022
    The Black Alliance for Peace hosts a Month of Action Against the US Africa Command, AFRICOM, every October. AFRICOM continues to play a dangerous role in enforcing US foreign policy that is…
  • COP27 to be Held in Egypt amid Global Challenges
    Abayomi Azikiwe
    COP27 to be Held in Egypt amid Global Challenges
    21 Sep 2022
    African nations and other developing regions are facing greater economic turmoil as extreme weather events, imperialist war and capitalist exploitation continue to damage the planet. The next United…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us