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
Detroit’s wanton killing of hundreds of Blacks in the civil right era shows why most of today’s proposals to make police more accountable are bound to fail.
There was no way to make light of this daunting book and its effects on me, no matter how much I thought I knew it.
The author explores various social, political, and cultural sites that explore and highlight the Black pastoral experience.
In the past year or two, the proposition of defunding or abolishing police and prisons has travelled from incarcerated-activist networks into mainstream conversations.
Biden promises popular progressive policies, then quietly reneges while the corporate press turns a blind eye and falls silent.
