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


  • Washington Celebrates NATO on King Assassination Day
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Washington Celebrates NATO on King Assassination Day
    01 Apr 2019
    Anti-war activists gathered in Washington to mark the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination and to protest the Trump administration’s birthday party for NATO.
  • Russiagate Implodes, Pleasing Trump But Leaving the Left in the Cold
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Russiagate Implodes, Pleasing Trump But Leaving the Left in the Cold
    28 Mar 2019
    The “Deep State” escalated a dispute within the U.S. corporate electoral duopoly into a geopolitical crisis, an “attack on America”
  • shotcallers and casualties
    Raymond Nat Turner , BAR poet-in-residence
    not a great true believer....
    27 Mar 2019
    I’m Caffie’s son—raised to resist, taught to question… Erring on the side of thinking for Myself
  • keeping us safe
    Evan Hawthorne
    "what the paranoid psychopath said (a rattled soliloquy faithfully transcribed from transparency's crypt)"
    27 Mar 2019
    "keep us safe" cried the screened weeded people, pledging allegiance to the identity-plied, personified, bipolar caparisoned, uniformly garrisoned,
  • Drown Sanders and Strangle Self-determination: What the Rich Will Do to Stay in Power
    Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
    Drown Sanders and Strangle Self-determination: What the Rich Will Do to Stay in Power
    27 Mar 2019
    The corporate Democrats are flooding the presidential race with professional servants of the rich to drown Sanders and his loyal base of support.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us