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

Oink
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
28 Oct 2015
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

in which the poet muses upon the landscapeve in which urban pioneers thrive

Oink

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

I saw Satan high on Seconal—‘Red
Devils’—zap an app for zombie-settlers.
Then they came by covered wagon,
stagecoach, horseback—bathed, and
reinvented themselves as programmers,
humans, condo-owners.

I saw rent refugees morph into miserable
Monsters—vapid vampires sucking soul,
air and chocolate out Tha Town. I saw them
turn into werewolves on Lakeshore, pushing
porcelain babies in thousand dollar strollers;
stressed-out Yogis practicing purse-clutching,
street-crossing, stink-eye Spiritualism on children
and grand-children of seventy-year residents.

I saw Dadaists driving drunk the wrong way on
10K gold-paved streets, killing dance masters,
like  policemen gunning down painters as a form
of critique

I saw the Best Burrito Shop, The5th Amendment,
and Africa By The Bay run off The Ave; their places
Taken by caffeine shooting galleries and Boer beer
bars for rent refugees trekkking 13 miles, bringing
Butte with them.
I saw nextdoor.com Nazi-NSA impersonators circle
laager between OPD cruisers and string yellow tape
around drumming, dancing, BBQing, singing Gospel
and other verbs modified by the phrase: “…while Black”

Raymond Nat Turner © 2015 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


  • BAR Book Forum: Liat Ben-Moshe’s “Decarcerating Disability”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Liat Ben-Moshe’s “Decarcerating Disability”
    26 Aug 2020
    Disability studies looks at disability as an identity and culture and not as a deficit to be corrected.
  • BAR Book Forum: “Black Study and Abolition”
    Hilary Malson
    BAR Book Forum: “Black Study and Abolition”
    26 Aug 2020
    The author examines literature that looks to sites of struggle to find the seeds of an alternative, more just future.
  • Obama, Harris and the Ruse of Racial Representation
    Nelson Maldonado-Torres 
    Obama, Harris and the Ruse of Racial Representation
    26 Aug 2020
    Racial liberalism attempts to shape the perspectives of communities of color through narrow ideas of national belonging, Manifest Destiny, and the American Dream.
  • Federal Judge Tackles Police Immunity Law
    Marjorie Cohn
    Federal Judge Tackles Police Immunity Law
    26 Aug 2020
    The Black judge listed the injustices of “qualified immunity,” which allows police and other government officials to escape liability for their law breaking.
  • COVID-19’s Toll on People of Color Is Worse Than We Knew
    The Marshall Project
    COVID-19’s Toll on People of Color Is Worse Than We Knew
    26 Aug 2020
    Some coronavirus deaths, especially early on, were mistakenly attributed to other causes.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us