by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
Unlike the president, our poet is firmly grounded in the history as well as the here and now of America.
Here is his prescription for what it will take to really make America great again.
Make America Great Again
by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
.44
.45
Sonny
Succeeding
Michael?
Gangsters still in power
State muscle for
Fossil Fuel Families; War-Profiteer Families;
Big Pharma, Protection, Bankster Families...
Iron fist beneath velvet glove, carrot and stick—
Mike and Ike: Good cop, Bad cop—
Force and deception:
Sweet nothing promises wafting with
Water hose, pepper spray, tear gas, rubber bullet
Bill of Rights
With snarling dog investigations-hearings—
Hearing what’s been heard ten-thousand times...
Two years of absurdist theater
spasming to its temporary halt—
Curtain call—The Drone Ranger (bowing; solemn)
“We’re all on one team.”
Golda-plated Iron Lady (resigned)
“Have an open mind; give him a chance to lead.”
Sheep Doggy Dogg (eager; co-signing)
“He’s a man who can be worked with.”
A smoking gun, mushroom cloud, puffed up
Pillsbury Doughboy—Cheato Bandito—rises
on hot air, unstable, unpredictable,destructive
like capitalism: “To Make America Great Again!”
I say, “Go ahead, make my day—
Make Amerikkka, great again”—
When Underground Railroad tracks
criss-crossed the countryside for splintered
Families’ auction blocked aspirations
When rebellions and war
Overthrew torture, murder, rape,
Liberating labor in all hues...
When at the Battle of the Greasy Grass,
Indian-killer, Custer, met tough-love Lakota,
Northern Cheyenne, Arapaho-style...
I say, “Go ahead, make my day—
Make Amerikkka, great again”—
When streets were class struggle universities:
Communists, socialists, anarchists, labor leaders,
Professors;
When Flint struck a thousand points of light—
40 day, 40 night sit-down strike;
When self-help movements: Sharecropper Unions,
Worker Alliance Groups, Unemployed Councils
Metastasized through ‘30s veins:
Organizing unemployed, tenants, farmers
Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked,
putting those evicted Back in their homes;
When Longshore Workers tied up two
Thousand miles of Pacific Coast; and
San Francisco, Minnesota General Strike
Concessions trickled down like magic bullets
I say, “Go ahead, make my day—
Make Amerikkka, great again”—
When African-Americans boycotting
Montgomery’s apartheid busses 381days
walked and car-pooled;
When students rode busses up south, down south
through savage southern gauntlets;
Sat-in at lynch mob lunch counters; and braved
Murderous heathens registering elders to vote;
When students shut San Francisco State down
four months, birthing Black Student Unions—
Black Studies programs;
When Chinese and Vietnamese sent statements
supporting struggles of African-American fighters;
When Brown Berets, Young Lords, AIM, SDS, Anti-War
Activists were born...
I say, “Go ahead, make my day—
Make Amerikkka, great again!”
As an embryonic world reveals
Itself, its power
Protecting Water,
Fighting For Fifteen,
Occupying Wall Street,
Making Black Lives Matter—
With it we live—with you we cannot...
Raymond Nat Turner © 2017 All Rights Reserved
Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performing artist.
Find much more of his work at Http://upsurgejazz.com
Isaac Saney is a Cuba and Black studies specialist and historian at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
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