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

Amiri made me think…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
25 Feb 2014
🖨️ Print Article

by Raymond Nat Turner

What muthafracker would

Bomb the Motherland and

Call it humanitarian? Mc Cain?

 

Amiri made me think…

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

I.

Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh…

Calling all Africans

All Africans

Africans

Africans

All humanity, anyone human, humane

Calling all Africans

All Africans

Africans

Africans

Continental and Diasporic—

Flaunt dense temporal

Lobes, clutch elephant

Memories in the

Age of…Austerity

Age of…Alzheimer’s

Political dementia!

 

Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh…

Calling all Africans

All Africans

Africans

Africans

Clutch memories of the

Pyramid scheme that

Kidnapped and brought us here

It rattles in its death

Throes and must be buried

 

Remember when we

Were light workers,

Sentinels of light,

Righteous star seeders

Helping bring it down?

 

Emit infrasounds if

You hear me when I

Say this muthafracker’s

A marathon—not a sprint—

An inevitable struggle

For socialism, no speed-

Bump, Iceberg Slim or

Supposed third road can stop,

Amiri made me think…

 

II.

Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh…

Calling all Negroz

Mentally ill— fidgety,

Flighty, dialed into dumb shit

Losing all ability

To analyze, THINK

Independently, carry

On conversations,

Respond to the environment

 

Yeah, there’s power in

The Now, but memory

Peels cataracts from

Third eyes, so we peer

Into futures free of fractured

Spirits, cupped hands, crimson

Streets and filthy rivers…

Amiri made me think

 

III.

Amiri made me think

What muthafracker would

Bomb the Motherland and

Call it humanitarian? Mc Cain?

 

Which one could turn the

Earthquake in Haiti

Into military operations,

The buzzards’ banquet for

Disaster capitalists? Buffett?

 

Which one would invite

Another brother for beer

With his arresting officer,

Clarence Thomas? Shaq?

 

Which muthafracker

Could march on Morehouse

Give a“Niggeraintshit!”

Commencement address &

Get a standing ovation?

Rush? O’Reilly? Hannity?

 

Which one would watch BP

Blow up the Macondo Well,

Kill eleven workers,

Millions of mussels, shrimp,

Crabs, sea turtles and birds &

Call it the Big Bank Theory/

Too Big To Jail? Bush? Palin?

 

Heard this PhD professor proclaim:

It’s the complexitiesandnuancesofthepracticalapplicationofthehistorical

ContinuationofpostracialimperialisttesticularprowessofpaxAmericana—

Anyway, an unlettered, low-life,

Like me wouldn’t understand,

So he “unpacked” it of bovine odor,

Broke it down into laymen’s language

Like The “Wink-wink, Nod-nod strategy—”

In other words, Iceberg Slim bombed Africa

Wink-wink, Nod-nod, to fool white folks

That way, it don’t look like he playin’ favorites,

But, soon as he free from them Repubicans and

Outta office and set up his foundation he be

Free to give Africa all the aid it need…

 

Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh…

Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh… Errrrrrh…

Amiri made me think—

Marx & Lenin let me look…

 

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com.

 

Raymond Nat Turner © 2014 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


  • ESSAY: Behind the Mau Mau: George Padmore, 1953
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Behind the Mau Mau: George Padmore, 1953
    14 Sep 2022
    George Padmore’s account of British rule and Black resistance in Kenya reminds us that “Queen” Elizabeth is both the symbol and beneficiary of the savagery of colonialism and white supremacy.
  • The Sickness of the American Left and the Path to Recovery
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    The Sickness of the American Left and the Path to Recovery
    14 Sep 2022
    Leftist action and analysis are most needed now that capitalism is beset by many crises, but clarity of thought and revolutionary discipline are often lacking.
  • There go Ol’ Schmo again…
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    There go Ol’ Schmo again…
    14 Sep 2022
    There go Ol’ Schmo again…
  • BAR Book Forum: Maano Ramutsindela, Frank Matose, and Tafadzwa Mushonga’s Book, “The Violence of Conservation in Africa”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Maano Ramutsindela, Frank Matose, and Tafadzwa Mushonga’s Book, “The Violence of Conservation in Africa”
    14 Sep 2022
    This week’s featured authors are Maano Ramutsindela, Frank Matose, and Tafadzwa Mushonga. Ramutsindela is Professor of Geography in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science at the…
  •  BAR Book Forum: Reighan Gillam’s Book, “Visualizing Black Lives”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Reighan Gillam’s Book, “Visualizing Black Lives”
    14 Sep 2022
    In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured author is Reighan Gillam. Gillam is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us