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

Leaders I lost— SORRY I LOST…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
20 Aug 2013
🖨️ Print Article

by Raymond Nat Turner

My leaders were chased

To China, Tanzania, Cuba and

France by lynch mobs and

Death squads posing as public servants—

I LOST

 

Leaders I lost— SORRY I LOST…

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

I.

Even in August’s sauna,

Leaders of the Cristal,

Judas Quisling class

Have it made in the shade!

 

When the Unca Jims,

Jealousies, Andy Tongues,

Slutty Professors, and

Other muleheads who

Savor the flavor

Of leather, gather

At the feet of the

Great Emancipator,

Huffin’ and puffin’

‘Bout recent wrongs—

Same ol’ songs— sanitizing

The ‘60s, hiding worn

Harnesses to the mule;

Thank gawd almighty they’ve

Overcome tall principles,

Steep integrity and

Truth-telling decades ago—

Dumping on Dr King

For Burger King, Ronald Mc Donald,

Colonel Sanders, Popeye’s, liquor

Franchises and sub-contracts,

Rapprochement with Reaganite reaction paid

 

II.

My leaders were voted

Out of office in penitentiary

Yards, Lorraine balcony, Audubon

Ballroom, bedroom-voting booths—

I LOST— SORRY I LOST…

My leaders were chased

To China, Tanzania, Cuba and

France by lynch mobs and

Death squads posing as public servants—

I LOST— SORRY I LOST…

 

My leaders had hearts

Of Harriet, Toussaint and Nat;

Spines of Sitting Bull, Dessalines and

Osceola; tongues of Truth, Douglass and

Harrison; pens of Wells, Walker and

Garrison, strip searches, x-rays and

Metal detectors don’t detect—

I LOST— SORRY I LOST…

 

My leaders sprouted up

From Strange Fruit-fertilized

Black soil saturated by fire

Hoses and spittle of Strom, Bull,

Lester, Hoover bloodhounds and

Other Amerikkkan apartheid actors—

I LOST— SORRY I LOST…

 

My leaders first served, and

Later, hanging judges, not chads

Confirmed them in “superior” courts

Inaugurating them with more boots

Batons, bullets, mud-slinging and

Negative campaigning, COINTELPRO-style—

I LOST— SORRY I LOST…

 

My leaders were elected

To 4x9, windowless offices

Open twenty-four, seven,

Three hundred -sixty-five

Days a year, 3, 4 even 5 decades—

I LOST— SORRY I LOST…

 

My leaders have #s

Like 09-A3775 and 77A4283

I can’t call when I wake up

In a cold sweat, screaming—

I LOST— SORRY I LOST…

 

My leaders make less

Than a dollar a day

And ain’t Rollex-models

Rollin’ somethin’ shiny and German

With ALEC’s hand up

Their asses, making their

Mouths move every 2-4 years

With promises, promises, promises,

Promises only fools and babies believe—

I LOST— SORRY I LOST…

I LOST— SORRY I LOST…

 

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com.

 

Raymond Nat Turner © 2013 All Rights Reserved

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


More Stories


  • Trump billboard
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Gerald Horne Discusses Trump Foreign Policy
    08 Nov 2024
    Dr. Gerald Horne joins us from Houston to provide an analysis of US foreign policy in the wake of Donald Trump’s overwhelmming victory and return to the white house.
  • Ajamu panel
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Trump vs Harris - US Citizens Denied the Choice for Peace, People or Planet
    06 Nov 2024
    On November 3, 2024, BAR Editor and Columnist, Ajamu Baraka, participated in a panel discussion entitled "Trump vs Harris - US Citizens Denied Choice for Peace, People or Planet." Black Agenda Report…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    How Trump Won and What Black People Should Do
    06 Nov 2024
    Donald Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris must be a wake up call to Black people. The Democratic Party is a dead end and a movement killer. Our survival depends on getting that corrupt wing of the…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Why I Won’t Vote, W. E. B. Du Bois, 1956
    06 Nov 2024
    “I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no "two evils" exist. ​​There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Bill Clinton and the “Dictators Club”
    06 Nov 2024
    Bill Clinton couldn’t be cozier, or more richly rewarded, in what he calls “the dictator’s club.”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us