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

Make me do it…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
25 Mar 2014
🖨️ Print Article

by Raymond Nat Turner

Make me do it, one Hellfire Missile each—

They’ll all be in a better place: with you

Lord, make me do it! Make me do it!

 

Make me do it…

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

“Precious Lord, take my hand/ Lead me on, let me stand …”

 

God is a person with a logo and $500 an hr lawyers

He knows waterboarding is why the caged bird sings &

Without its CPUSA punch line, the FDR and A. Phillip

Randolph anecdote is a fractured fairytale, pathetic parody:

 

Take my hand and make my palm turn upward facing the

Heavens taking fresh faces of Franklin from holy bundlers,

Banksters, Wall Street Warlords, armament manufacturers,

Drug and insurance charlatans and high priests of fossil fuel,

Make me a warlock, make me meet every Tuesday—take my

Left hand, lord, make me pick up my black lacquered, gold-

Trimmed Montblanc and signoff on another careful signature Strike…

 

There’s an Afghan grandmother tending

Her small garden plot and teaching her

Grandson how to pick ripened okra,

In Pakistan there’s a young man ordering

At an outdoor café and oh, yes, Yemen, yes

There’s also Somali fishermen fighting

Progress, precious lord, take my hand and

Make me do it, one Hellfire Missile each—

They’ll all be in a better place: with you

Lord, make me do it! Make me do it!

 

Confederate flags and swastikas fluttering

In Ukraine winds of change we can believe

In make me signoff on spare change for regime

Change; I’m feeling like Teddy, now: “Oh-oh,

 

Ooo-ooo, ah-ah, Oh-oh, I like the way you make me feel!”

Make me destabilize Venezuela, yes, lord, make me do it!

 

Make me keep Gitmo open 8 years after I promised

Its closure; Make me go after Snowden, Manning,

Assange and put a $2 million reward on the terror

Threat sitting off our shore for forty years In Cuba;

Make me ignore Abu Jamal, Peltier, Shoatz and other

Old outlaws who had their days in court— in a post-

Racial age there’s no place for divisive old ideas like theirs;

Yes, lord, make me do it! Make me do it! Make me do it!

 

Yes, lord, make me sing like Al Green, make me fool

Stupid Negroz again, like goober dus’, black cat dander,

Slick Willy’s shades and saxophone did, make me make

Them think voting for me is the most important thing ever

For their freedom, more important than the Abolitionist Movement,

Anti-lynching movement, the BPP, SNCC,

CORE, NAACP, the Watts, Detroit, Newark rebellions,

Nat Turner’s Rebellion, John Brown’s Raid on Harpers

Ferry and the Civil War combined; more important than

That nappy-headed foolishness of Paul Robeson, Malcolm

X and moron Robert Williams; make me make them think

Happy-dancing on ice for me was making history, more

Important than the Civil Rights, Black Power, Anti-War,

American Indian and Women’s Movements combined;

Make me make them like me, follow me on Facebook and

Stare catatonically at my tweets; make me make them watch

Me work crowds on Youtube, giving my NAS commencement

Speech at Morehouse, my annual Fathers Day NAS speeches to

Poor Black men; make me make scholars act like soft head

Simpletons; make me make them swear that Dr. King would’ve

Been about Africom and boots on the ground and— Nobel Prize

Aside, would’ve have shot Bin Laden himself had he, King, lived!

 

Make me say “Drill, baby, drill!” a thousand times and forgive BP

For blowing up the Macondo well killing 11 workers, tens of

Millions of mussels, shrimp and crabs, forgive them for with legions of

Lawyers, scientists, public relations experts they know not what they do;

make me speak of clean coal with a straight face

And nukes in the face of Fukishima; Yes, lord, make me do it!

Make Me do it! Make me do it! Make me do it! Make me do it!

 

Make me crush Occupy like cockroaches under my combat boots,

Make me get with Simpson and go after Social Security, Medicare,

Medicaid; make me listen in on phone calls, monitor keystrokes,

Watch tweets, posts, pokes, blogs, bank, medical and library

Records— make me make the 1st and 4th Amendments illusions

Like objects in David Copperfield magic shows; Make me do it!

Make me do it! Make me do it! Make me do it! Make me do it!

 

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


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Marco Rubio Reveals the White Supremacy at the Heart of Western Foreign Policy
    18 Feb 2026
    Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in public what is usually unspoken but accepted around the world. Western foreign policy is controlled by the doctrine of white supremacy. 
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist , ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Ajamu Baraka Remembers Rev. Jesse Jackson
    18 Feb 2026
    What is Jesse Jackson’s legacy? Ajamu Baraka, Black Agenda Report editor and columnist, provides his reflections.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Resurrection City: The Dream…The Accomplishments, Jesse Jackson, 1968
    18 Feb 2026
    “The Poor People’s Campaign is the greatest single challenge ever unleashed upon our colonial system.”
  • Somaliland
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Israel’s Recognition of “Somaliland” Is Destabilizing Somalia and the Horn of Africa
    18 Feb 2026
    I spoke to the Black Alliance for Peace AFRICOM Watch Bulletin about Israel’s recognition of Somalia’s secessionist state, which is further destabilizing the volatile Horn of Africa. 
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    It will be about the survivors and about the Tao
    18 Feb 2026
    "It will be about the survivors and about the Tao" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us