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

What The Left Left At O’Hare
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
18 Jun 2013
🖨️ Print Article

by Raymond Nat Turner

To fly the friendly skies of the National Security State, one must first be prepared to jettison all leftist baggage.

 

What The Left Left At O’Hare

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

I recall, it was like TSA had groped,

Probed and lightened their load:

“You can’t carry independent politics aboard”

“Militant mass-action is forbidden aboard the aircraft”

“Proletarian Internationalism must be dumped out here”

“Revolutionary attitude toward the state is absolutely forbidden beyond the gate!”

“You are allowed to bring aboard:

2oz see-through plastic bottles of social-chauvinism

2 oz plastic bottles of reformism

2 oz plastic bottles of tokenism

Unlimited humanitarian interventions in see through plastic is allowed”

 

Happy campers boarding in ’08,

Gate 1%, O’Hare, via Ronald

Reagan, “the left” powered

Down principles, turned off

Theoretical devices, kept its

Seatbelts buckled low and tight—

Paid high prices for complimentary

Kool Aid, mini-bottles of beer and

Headphones for feature films like

0 Dark 30 looped eight years on

Their non-stop flight—

Making their descent

Three years left in the

Holding pattern, acting as

Floatation devices under one

Seat aboard… Air Force One…

 

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


  • Collage saying "we are the union"
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Southern Human Rights Organizing and the Amazon Workers' Struggle
    20 Dec 2023
    Margaret Kimberley spoke with Jennifer Bates, an organizer with the BAmazon Union, at the Southern Human Rights Organizers Conference (SHROC) which was recently held in Nashville, a…
  • REVIEW: Radical Black Reading, 2023
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    REVIEW: Radical Black Reading, 2023
    20 Dec 2023
    An end of the year radical Black reading list from the editors of The Black Agenda Review.
  • Chinese People’s Association for Peace and Disarmament logo
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Ajamu Baraka Report Back from the US Peace Council’s Peace Delegation to the People's Republic of China
    20 Dec 2023
    Ajamu Baraka reports back from the four-person delegation from the US Peace Council, where he serves on the Executive Committee, to Beijing and Shanghai China hosted by the Chinese People’s…
  • Flooding in Somalia
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Climate Profiteers Exploit Somali Suffering
    20 Dec 2023
    NGOs and other climate profiteers treat Somalia as a poster child for global warming.
  • Lucas de Lima and the cover of his book, “Tropical Sacrifice”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Lucas de Lima’s Book, “Tropical Sacrifice”
    20 Dec 2023
    In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured author is Lucas de Lima. de Lima is Visiting Lecturer in English at Mount Holyoke College. His…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us