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

…In his head
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
10 Mar 2014
🖨️ Print Article

by Raymond Nat Turner

Dr. King’s Dream come true,

In his head! Black folks way better

Off, in his head, Rev. Wright was

Wrong, in his head!

 

…In his head

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

Headin’ downtown on the D train

The other day I overheard oration—

By a fella, to a fella, from a fella 51/50

“Mexicans takin’ our jobs; they hate

Our freedoms— but blurred lines,

Beyonce’s booty, NAACP Image

Awards, Robin Thicke & recovery

Jus’ roun’ the corner; smart phone,

Dr. Dre headphones lift me outta

Poverty; smart bombs protect my

Freedoms; I got 2,000 Facebook

Friends, a poke away, who gimme

My kidney & bone marrow transplant!”

 

Booming baritone thundering in

Harmony with the train, he continued

His melodious, rhythmic catechism,

“Since ’08 things been Great,” in his

Head, Dr. King’s Dream come true,

In his head! Black folks way better

Off, in his head, Rev. Wright was

Wrong, in his head! “Yes, we can,”

In his head, mo’ Black folks have

Homes since World War II, in his

Head! Mo’ Black wealth than ever

Before, in his head; fewer Black folk

Dyin’ fo’ they 70th, in his head; mo’

Black men goin’ to college than jail,

In his head, liars figure but figures

Don’t lie, in his head, in his head,

“Change we can believe in,” in his

Head, police stopped shootin’ us

Since that beer, in his head; we

Cool, long as Big Brother brown, in

His head! Oratory swelling like a

Dark cumulus cloud, lookin’ me

Dead in the eye, “This election the

Mos’ important election ever…”

 

“The rich say that every time,” I snapped.

He leapt up like a man possessed, banshee-

Rebel- wailing, “What, you ain’t votin’?

Nigger, get away from me, you is cra-aaa-zy!”

 

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


  • Halt – Don’t Expand – Mass Incarceration in New York
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Halt – Don’t Expand – Mass Incarceration in New York
    14 Oct 2019
    The Black Alliance for Just Immigration supports the “No New Jails NYC” campaign to prevent the city from building 12 new prisons to replace the cells that will be lost when the infamous Rikers Isl
  • Corporate Domination is Central to Food Issues
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Corporate Domination is Central to Food Issues
    14 Oct 2019
    The lack of food outlets in Black neighborhoods is part of the larger reality of labor exploitation and corporate domination, according to Ashante Reese, professor of anthropo
  • Phony Progressives Follow Trump Lead on Venezuela
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Phony Progressives Follow Trump Lead on Venezuela
    14 Oct 2019
    So-called progressives sound just like Donald Trump when they describe Venezuela’s elected government as a “dictatorship,” said Nicholas Evan Ayala, co-editor of Anti
  •  NYT “1619 Project” More Pro-American Exceptionalism Than Anti-Slavery
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    NYT “1619 Project” More Pro-American Exceptionalism Than Anti-Slavery
    14 Oct 2019
    The New York Times’ “1619 Project” essays on the arrival of African slaves in Jamestown, Virginia “is not a critique of American exceptionalism – it is an attempt to told slavery
  • Black Agenda Radio for Week of October 7, 2019
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of October 7, 2019
    11 Oct 2019
    Black Is Back Coalition: Fight US Imperialism at Home and Abroad
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us