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


  • The Crisis of Western Imperialism and the Imperative of War and Repression
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    The Crisis of Western Imperialism and the Imperative of War and Repression
    07 Dec 2022
    The world as we know it must change. Humanity cannot survive under imperialist and capitalist structures.
  •  BAR Book Forum: Stacy J. Lettman’s Book, “The Slave Sublime”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Stacy J. Lettman’s Book, “The Slave Sublime”
    07 Dec 2022
    This week’s featured author is Stacy J. Lettman. Lettman is an Assistant Professor of English at Florida Atlantic University. Her book is The Slave Sublime The Language of Violence in Caribbean…
  •  BAR Book Forum: Jean-Thomas Tremblay’s Book, “Breathing Aesthetics”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Jean-Thomas Tremblay’s Book, “Breathing Aesthetics”
    07 Dec 2022
    This week’s featured author is Jean-Thomas Tremblay. Tremblay is Assistant Professor of Environmental Humanities in the Department of Humanities at York University. Their book is Breathing Aesthetics.
  • Speech at the World Peace Council's Hanoi Peace Conference
    Bahman Azad
    Speech at the World Peace Council's Hanoi Peace Conference
    07 Dec 2022
    The multipolar world is a reality, but the U.S. is determined to assert itself as a unipolar hegemon and endanger the whole world in the process.
  • US Tax Dollars at Work: Neocolonial Dictatorship, Paramilitary and Police Terror in Haiti Today
    Seth Donnelly
    US Tax Dollars at Work: Neocolonial Dictatorship, Paramilitary and Police Terror in Haiti Today
    07 Dec 2022
    The call for "law and order" and strengthening police in Haiti is as dangerous as talk of any occupation. The police force is connected with Haitian oligarchs and their political puppets and is…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us