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
  • omnibus

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


  • Sanders Gets Swallowed by the DNC Machine: It’s Time to #DemExit
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Sanders Gets Swallowed by the DNC Machine: It’s Time to #DemExit
    18 Mar 2020
    Only the demise of the Democratic Party can free up the potential of the people to resolve the many problems created by capitalism and imperialism.
  • “Virus or No Virus, We Can't Lose Our Voice”: Cheri Honkala on Frontline Communities
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    “Virus or No Virus, We Can't Lose Our Voice”: Cheri Honkala on Frontline Communities
    18 Mar 2020
    Coronavirus is just an extension of the war that we've been forced to fight under capitalism.
  • Ruling-class Remedies
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Ruling-class Remedies
    18 Mar 2020
    If you’re feeling exceptionally feverish  or feverishly exceptional pull a tight-fitting, cherry red MAGAT cap over your forehead and eyes. Tight
  • Debtors of the World, Unite!
    Hannah Appel
    Debtors of the World, Unite!
    18 Mar 2020
    Debt’s ubiquity is a burden, but also an opportunity. “The point of debtors’ unions it is to build collective power—people power.”
  • The Roots of Anti-Racist, Anti-Fascist Resistance in the US 
    Robin D.G. Kelley
    The Roots of Anti-Racist, Anti-Fascist Resistance in the US 
    18 Mar 2020
    The militant white supremacists of the current generation are either products of, or influenced by, the “third Klan” of the 1970s and 1980s.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us