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

Hooked On Hopium
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
13 Jun 2012
🖨️ Print Article

 

by Raymond Nat Turner

There will be no replay of 2008’s greatest hits, but the reflux is debilitating in the extreme – for those who got hooked on Hopium.

 

Hooked On Hopium

by Raymond Nat Turner

*Look at the people –

I know you’re wonderin’ what they’re doin’

Crawlin’ ‘round the marble

Floors lookin’ for his

Feet, and the fire be-

Longing to Boeing,

And the other Big

Boys, Negroz have hit

Rock bottom, powerless

To admit they are

Addicts who will lie,

Steal, leave their babies

And homes in hands of

The Hope Man— even

Act as accessories

To murder— ever

Since that first hit, ’08.

 

*“Look at the people—

I know you’re wonderin’ what they’re doin’

They’re just standin’ there…

Caught up in the rap-

Ture of Hopium’s

Side effects:

Stupor, paralysis,

Heart palpitations,

Ringing ears, dry mouths,

Slurred speech, confused thinking,

Hallucinations,

Delusional, schizophrenic,

Suicidal behavior…

If symptoms persist,

Longer than 4 years,

Negroz must consult

Mental health professionals

Immediately and avoid

Operating heavy equipment,

Like tanks, helicopters,

Aircraft carriers,

Armored personnel

Carriers, or drones…

 

(*Based on Bobby Blue Bland’s Blues classic “I Pity The Fool”)

Raymond Nat Turner @ 2012 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


  • Lousiana
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    The Struggle for Black Electoral Power in Louisiana
    08 May 2026
    C.C. Campbell Rock is a New Orleans-based journalist. She recently wrote Louisiana v Callais: They Stole Black Power Again" for the site Black Source Media. She discusses the recent Supreme Court…
  • Mali
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Mali Attacked By Western Backed Proxies
    08 May 2026
    On April 25th, the West African nation Mali experienced a coordinated attack carried out by Western-backed proxy forces seeking to undermine the Alliance of Sahel States confederation. Abayomi…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Voting Rights Act and the Need for Movement Politics
    06 May 2026
    From the 1870 15th Amendment to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, voting rights for Black people have proven to be ephemeral. Laws can be unenforced or gutted altogether. Black people’s rights must be…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    LETTER: Pedro Pérez Sarduy to Carlos Moore, 1990
    06 May 2026
    “I felt proud to be black in a country in revolution with a leader of Iberian ancestry who had launched Operation Carlota, in one of the hardest terrains on the African continent…”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Eritrea and the “Internal Government Document Seen by Reuters”
    06 May 2026
    Reuters reports on a mysterious government document seeming to confirm that sanctions will be lifted on Eritrea.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us