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

Breathe the Bern…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
20 Apr 2016
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Our poet in residence muses upon the collective madness engendered by the quadrennial presidential election.

Breathe the Bern…

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Right around this time ‘left’ pundits and
Pontificators hitch worn star-spangled
suspenders to an ol’ mule and pretend they’re
Alcoholics— invoking the serenity prayer:

“God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things that I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.”

They claim theirs is the highest form of self-
discipline; like a form of Yoga, a sacred set of
Breathing exercises in 4yr-cycles—foundation of
their practice is regulation of oxygen to brain cells…

But it looks like the Hokey-Pokey:

You clamp your left nostril down,
Until it feels like you’ll drown…
You clamp your right nostril down,
Until your ‘hood’s like Jonestown—

Then you do the shit again in 4 yrs
As the wily 1% stokes your fears…
Set yourself back another decade
With the practicing of this charade…

Raymond Nat Turner © 2016 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


  • How to Wreck a Black Nation In the Age of “Black Lives Matter”
    Taytu Bitul
    How to Wreck a Black Nation In the Age of “Black Lives Matter”
    09 Jun 2021
    Today’s colonialists recruit Black politicians and Black terrorist groups who are willing to play along.
  • “New Bones” Abolitionism, Communism, and Captive Maternals
    Joy James
    “New Bones” Abolitionism, Communism, and Captive Maternals
    09 Jun 2021
    Joy James uses poet Lucille Clifton's image of “new bones” to reflect on a series of revolutionary anniversaries in 2021 and the nature of political leadership.
  • BAR Book Forum: Rachel Afi Quinn’s “Being La Dominicana”
    Rachel Afi Quinn
    BAR Book Forum: Rachel Afi Quinn’s “Being La Dominicana”
    09 Jun 2021
    Dominican racial logic frequently contradicts what US scholars think they know about how race works.
  • BAR Book Forum: Tiffany N. Florvil’s “Mobilizing Black Germany”
    Tiffany N. Florvil
    BAR Book Forum: Tiffany N. Florvil’s “Mobilizing Black Germany”
    09 Jun 2021
    Black History Month strengthened Black German claims of kinship with their nation and the larger diaspora.
  • The Great “Awokening” and Ruling Class Uses for Racial Grievance Discourse 
    Pascal Robert
    The Great “Awokening” and Ruling Class Uses for Racial Grievance Discourse 
    09 Jun 2021
    The Black political class is wedded to the centrist Democrats for its “fatback and biscuits” patronage.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us