Deja vu—Step 1 and Step 2?

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence

02 Sep 2020

Is this Deja Vu—
Step1 and Step 2?
The long, long lines breaking with
12 years of Reaganite reaction in
’92
Slick Willy’s $campaign—his sax-
ophone; his shades: his “1st black
President” sticht?

Is this Deja Vu—
Step1 and Step 2
Negroz Happy Dancing on ice—
not once—but twice?
Frozen acrobats dangling
Dangerously
from the Drone Ranger’s warhead,
while “Holding his feet to the fire?”
Drunken empire bums sprawled
outside the War House, high on High
Fructose Corn Syrup slogans: “Yes, we
Can and Bottle Jim Jones Juice for
Regime change You can believe in?”

Is this Deja Vu—
Step1 and Step 2
Ringling Brothers of rhetoric sprinkling
goober dust in black cat dander—and
chanting sesquipedalian mumbo jumbo—
Moving Hellfire Missiles and Kill Lists left?
Is this another Negro sing along to get along
song, “If I Had A Son” he’d look like_____(fill
in the blank) washing it down with Po-Po Beer
in the Rogue Garden, while juggling 7 wars and
Deporting two million?

Is this Deja Vu—
Step1 and Step 2
with Ol’ blakkk Schmo
and Lady Blue—or do we
Finally, finally want MORE—
or will we wait until… 2054?

A bad trip…

“If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine, it’s lethal.” — Paul Coelho

Would you take a road
trip every four years
cross country in car
smoking and burning
Oil?
A car with a leaking
radiator; bald tires; no
jack; worn shocks, and
bad brakes?

Would you take a road
trip every four years
cross country in a car
with a panhandle shaped
Crack
in its windshield? A car with
worn out windshield wipers;
busted headlights; burned out
taillights, and no turn signals?

Would you take a road
trip every four years
cross country in a car
with no heater or air conditioner; a car
with an AM radio with only one station?
A musty, uncomfortable car registered to
Two, old, half-blind, belligerent, uninsured
drunk drivers;
Armed to the teeth, arguing over who will
…drive?

BAR’s poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com .

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