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

The acrobats are back…(gimme a bleepin’ break!)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
12 May 2021
🖨️ Print Article
The acrobats are back…(gimme a bleepin’ break!)
The acrobats are back…(gimme a bleepin’ break!)

The acrobats are back—riding bareback and backwards on
Donkeys! They’re back juggling hocus-pocus focus groups;
Back, spinning Wall Street straw into fools’ gold for the war-
mongering mouth of a punch drunk politician. Back hallucinating
on FDR Fairytales. Back somersaulting over scarlet streets, strikes and 
factory seizures; back vaulting over violence/militant eviction resistance

The acrobats are back—Lilliputian left-Munchkin Marxists—juggling 
Classless analysis; doing back-flips erasing millions; Tumbling above
herds of handcuffed communists, socialists, anarchists, trade unionists 
who waged pitched battles with Pinkerton-police-national guard-gun thugs.
The acrobats are back turning cartwheels; Flipping history on its head—
Landing squarely in the laps of generals and statesmen…

The acrobats are back—flipping LBJ minus 34 dead and smoke-filled skies 
over Watts/43 dead in Detroit/27 dead, 1400 arrests in Newark; LBJ minus millions 
marching NO to Jim Crow, war/women’s oppression; Minus martyrs—whose M’s 
include Mickey, Medgar, Malcolm, Martin… The acrobats are back,
dancing in donkey dung down the Yellow Brick Road for the Emerald City
Intersectional Empire—strangely resembling the Pentagon…

The acrobats are back—daredevils who dangled dangerously for 8 yrs. from 
the Drone Ranger’s dick. They’re back—Capitalist Hill cartwheels and flips—sticking 
stealth socialist landings as Comrade Schmo plays them like The 
Great Oz—ominously warning: “Pay no attention to Wall Street-War-Profiteer-
Big Pharma/Fossil Fuel-Credit Card Companies behind my thin blue curtain of 
Promises!” Then he quietly pulls his pistol and mumbles,”What’s in your wallet?”

© 2021. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

BAR’s poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished performing artist. You can find much more of his work at https://www.youtube.com/user/zigilow

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at comments@blackagendareport.com

poetry

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


Related Stories

Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Poem for Walter Rodney, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, 1981  
11 June 2025
“any where or world where there is love there is the sky and its blue free
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A few lines for the Poet Ojenke...
21 May 2025
RIP: Rise In Poetics to Ra
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Reflections after the June 12th March of Disarmament, Sonia Sanchez, 1982
18 December 2024
“I have come to you tonite not just for the stoppage
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Love My Black Job
11 September 2024
Love my Black Job— Black Student Union Job! Hired at L.A. City College As “The Peoples Poet!”
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Enemy of the Sun, Samih al-Qasim, 1970
29 May 2024
Read against the terrible incineration of Rafah today, this poem of resistance and refusal, by Pa
Image of Refaat Alareer sitting in a crowd of graduates
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: If I Must Die, Refaat Alareer, 2023
13 December 2023
Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, a martyr of zionist state genocidal violence, has left us with a tale of resistance and hope.
Protest for Palestine at the White House
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Trigger Warning
22 November 2023
Trigger Warning Palestine’s the Answer— What was the Question?
Another June 1
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Another June 1
07 June 2023
                                       
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
16 February 2022
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Our ‘democracy’
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Our ‘democracy’
23 July 2021
Shangri-La—untaxed, socially-distanced champagne- caviar, Cayman Island, yacht crowds who

More Stories


  • Behind the Scenes at COP26: Developing Countries Fume Over U.S. Pressure to Alter Climate Finance Terms
    Rishika Pardikar
    Behind the Scenes at COP26: Developing Countries Fume Over U.S. Pressure to Alter Climate Finance Terms
    17 Nov 2021
    Rich capitalist nations use a variety of means to escape paying compensation to the Global South for climate change damage. The outcome at COP26 was no different in this regard.
  • Hurricane
    Steve D. Whitaker
    So Said, Not So Easily Done
    17 Nov 2021
    The island nations of the Caribbean are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
  • Let a Hundred Socialist Flowers Bloom: A Conversation with Issa Shivji
    Issa Shivji
    Let a Hundred Socialist Flowers Bloom: A Conversation with Issa Shivji
    17 Nov 2021
    In this extensive interview, socialist activist and writer Issa Shivji discusses the peasantry, capitalist development and socialism.
  • Photo Credit: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images
    Basav Sen
    We’re About to Pass Up a Generational Opportunity to Stem the Climate Crisis
    17 Nov 2021
    The Build Back Better program isn't just just inadequate on climate. It will have disastrous consequences if there is no active mass movement to counter its provisions.
  • U.S. Threatens Regime Change in Nicaragua
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    U.S. Threatens Regime Change in Nicaragua
    10 Nov 2021
    Nicaragua has been a target of U.S. aggressions since the 1850s. The Biden administration’s attack on the newly elected government is the latest chapter in a long and sordid history. Eyewitness…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us