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

Deliver us from lesser evil…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
04 Sep 2018
🖨️ Print Article
deliver us from lesser evil
front row at Aretha's funeral

Star-struck, in childlike

awe of celestial

Voices, silver tongues;

I spent seven hours

glued to the screen—

back in the Baptist Church,

Celebrating, honoring the

humanitarian, North Star

Shero—genius in her field!

What a day, imbibing

Mighty Black Music!

Joyful noise, Lake Michigan-

sized magnet, gathering forces

elbow to elbow—

Enemies, Orange Age

Allies on the clock…

Basking in reflected light,

Assassins, informants, jailers,

Mouthpieces, mass murderers,

super predators, slutty professors

came riding, riding, riding, riding

bare-back, backwards on a

Donkey to The D.

Riding in corporate coats

of many logos—then

Limboing their way

Center stage, tracking

donkey dung down the

red carpet; playing

our emotions, our

Souls, our strength—

our Achilles’ heel

like plastic kazoos:

resurrecting the

Democratic Party…

© 2018. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Our poet in residence, Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed performing artist. Find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

poetry

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


More Stories


  • Irvin Jim, NUMSA General Secretary
    NUMSA Statement on the National Elections Results and Coalitions
    19 Jun 2024
    With its recent historic loss of the Parliament majority, the African National Congress has formed a coalition with the Democratic Alliance, heir to the old apartheid regime, demonstrating its…
  • Abayomi Azikiwe
    Nigerian Trade Unions Stage Two-day Strike amid Economic Crisis
    19 Jun 2024
    Newly elected President Bola Tinubu, the Chair of ECOWAS, has mounting political problems while advocating military intervention in neighboring Niger.
  • Ezra McCoy
    Roc Nation’s Lobbying Efforts Cast Suspicion on Jay Z’s Association with GOP’s Top Funder
    19 Jun 2024
    Jay Z has consistently shown himself willing to be used as a Black face to run cover for conservative political endeavors. He is now promoting a voucher program that will reduce funding for…
  • Socialist Movement of Workers of the Dominican Republic
    No to African and Caricom troops in Haiti!
    19 Jun 2024
    The undemocratically imposed bourgeois political misleaders in Haiti must be understood as tools of imperialism that have led the country into its ongoing crisis.
  • Tariq Ali
    War on Gaza: How the West celebrated the Nuseirat massacre
    19 Jun 2024
    In the latest repellent display, western media are hailing the rescue of four Israeli hostages at the cost of 270 Palestinian lives.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us