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

Olympics of Lying: Lipsticking a pig
BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
09 Sep 2020
🖨️ Print Article
Olympics of Lying: Lipsticking a pig
Olympics of Lying: Lipsticking a pig

Red, white, blue burning crosses 
light up Capitalist Hill, War House, 
White Supreme Court sky. A 500 ft
phallic symbol middle fingers poor
People pinned down resisting crossfire:
Pandemic, Depression, Mengele Medicine…

It’s the Orange Age Olympics of Lying!
Let the games begin—again and again!
Gas-lighting, lipsticking a pig— the un-
wise wiseguy, simple-minded strong-
man, self-made wrong-man—Oh,what
fun to watch!

Boss Tweet—faux führer—leans a
Brooks Brothers skin alligator arm on
the bully pulpit lectern, then sticks 20
perfect 10 backflips,
summersaults, vaults, spiritual assaults—
Then sticks his dismount—turning truth 
On
its 
head 

It’s the Orange Age Olympics of Lying!
Let the games begin—again and again!
Let this COVID capitalism super spreader 
spectacle spit deadly droplets of Dog-eat-
Dog! Let it blast foghorns to deputies of
Death—Lawless L-Rad howls of “law and 
order…” to 1st Amendment assassins
on gaseous streets where
Dr. Goebbels and Leni Riefenstahl live—
Last Days of Pompeo—Where violent ghosts
live like crude translations from fluent Fascism:
“We Make the law as we Break the law!”

© 2020. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Utopian socialist’s socialist utopia

Comrade Joe—now I know—
I was slow…You tiptoe—Like 
sourdough 
Aikido…even though
Muhammad Ali is known as
The Greatest—your Rope-a-
Dope rises to another level!

“Nothing would fundamentally 
change,” you said. And I looked
into your glazed eyes and saw a
Politician—punch drunk from 
punching in and out on corporate 
Time clocks…
But, behind the fog
burned a wild-eyed Marxist—
Screaming at 1% paymasters:
“Get you hand out of my ass—
quit moving my mouth—44 
years is enough!”

Whew, now we can all
Breathe… a collective sigh
of relief… Alas, we will have
Space to organize—organize—
organize—organize—like our
Enslaved ancestors waiting to
break tools, slow down, go dumb,
feign illness, poison slavers and 
Escape…once Buchanan was out…
and Lincoln was in…

Comrade Joe—now I know—
I was slow…You tiptoe—Like 
sourdough 
Aikido…even though
All I saw was an old corporate
Clydesdale hauling water for fossil fools—
Hiding inside was a socialist Trojan Horse
of crimson hue, who will—1st 100 Days—trot
out closing Fort Hood and 100s of other rape
station/mass murder manufactories ringing our
Planet. Who will trot out 5-Year Plans bringing
young men and women home whole, honorable
For useful toil in home, hospital, clinic, windmill, 
solar panel, geothermal, electric vehicle building 
brigades
making Green New Dealers green with envy—
moving left with warp speed—like 
Michael Jackson Moonwalking to “Billie Jean!”

Comrade Joe—now I know—
I was slow…You tiptoe—Like 
sourdough 
Aikido…even though
Your Rope-a-Dope reminded me of that black
guy—Slutty Professor— ’08… Hippin’ us to the
Drone Ranger’s cool, coded Wink-Wink-Nod-
Nod, Black Folk-only language, going over
Heads of Wall Street, Pentagon and Banksters— 
“Too big to fail…” to nuanced Negroz centering,
drilling down, deep-diving, unpacking intersectionalities

Comrade Joe—now I know—
I was slow…You tiptoe—Like 
sourdough 
Aikido…even though
You said, “You ain’t Black,” to those cowering 
in corners—clothespin pinched noses—brains 
Deprived of oxygen; And you said the Black
community’s not as diverse as 
Mexican/Central American communities coming
from communist, socialist, labor, christian, green 
party populated countries…
You were really rallying us for November’s Nirvana—
some of us have
been trying to reach…All our adult lives…

© 2020. 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 http://upsurgejazz.com  .

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

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Army of Artists (For My Friend Horace Silver)
17 December 2025
Harmony of a hug,Rhythm of a rose,Melody in the mirror
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!”
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
MrJoeSam’s Text Messages
12 June 2024
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR’s poet-in-residence, pays homage to San Francisco’s shipyard artist JoeSam who died peacefully on June 1, 2024, surroun
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
Raymond Nat Turner
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Dis-honest Broker
01 May 2024
"Dis-honest Broker" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence, recently performed at UpSurge!
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Raymond Nat Turner at the UpSurge Jazz Celebration
03 April 2024
 
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.

More Stories


  • The Racist, Imperialist War on Venezuela
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    The Racist, Imperialist War on Venezuela
    24 Nov 2021
    We are reprinting Glen Ford’s 2019 article on Venezuela not to demonstrate that he was prescient on the issue of U.S.-Venezuela policies, but because it is still relevant and demonstrates the t
  • Kenyan Families Say U.S. Government Fueling “War on Terror” Disappearances and Killings, Demand Records
    Center for Constitutional Rights
    Kenyan Families Say U.S. Government Fueling “War on Terror” Disappearances and Killings, Demand Records
    24 Nov 2021
    Security forces trained by the CIA and the UK's MI6 use the "war on terror" as justification for killing and abducting Kenyans. In fact, the US/EU/NATO axis wage a war of te
  • Rittenhouse and Verdict Mania
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Rittenhouse and Verdict Mania
    23 Nov 2021
    Black people give great attention to certain court cases in hopes of receiving justice when the system is designed to be unjust.
  • The Delusional Commitment to the Doctrine of “Full Spectrum Dominance” is leading the U.S. and the World to Disaster
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    The Delusional Commitment to the Doctrine of “Full Spectrum Dominance” is leading the U.S. and the World to Disaster
    23 Nov 2021
    U.S. actions around the world seem mysterious unless the commitment to white supremacist notions of domination is clearly understood.
  • In a 1982 interview, Queen Mother Audley Moore raps on imperialism, neocolonialism, emancipation, and reparations -- and the need for Black people to get in our “right mind” to understand our domination.
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    Interview: Queen Mother Moore, Westindian Digest, September 1982
    23 Nov 2021
    In a 1982 interview, Queen Mother Audley Moore raps on imperialism, neocolonialism, emancipation, and reparations -- and the need for Black people to get in our “right mind” to understand our d
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us