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
  • omnibus

Breathe the Bern…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
20 Apr 2016

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Our poet in residence muses upon the collective madness engendered by the quadrennial presidential election.

Breathe the Bern…

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Right around this time ‘left’ pundits and
Pontificators hitch worn star-spangled
suspenders to an ol’ mule and pretend they’re
Alcoholics— invoking the serenity prayer:

“God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things that I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.”

They claim theirs is the highest form of self-
discipline; like a form of Yoga, a sacred set of
Breathing exercises in 4yr-cycles—foundation of
their practice is regulation of oxygen to brain cells…

But it looks like the Hokey-Pokey:

You clamp your left nostril down,
Until it feels like you’ll drown…
You clamp your right nostril down,
Until your ‘hood’s like Jonestown—

Then you do the shit again in 4 yrs
As the wily 1% stokes your fears…
Set yourself back another decade
With the practicing of this charade…

Raymond Nat Turner © 2016 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


  • Officer Prodigy
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Officer Prodigy
    17 Nov 2021
                                                                                                                            Officer Prodigy
  •  F.W. deKlerk: Requiem for a Racist Murderer
    Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, BAR editor and columnist
    F.W. de Klerk: Requiem for a Racist Murderer
    17 Nov 2021
    F.W. de Klerk was the last apartheid president of South Africa. But remnants of that system remain, and the struggle continues to completely erase the legacy of apartheid criminality.
  • Industrial Nations Value Capitalism Over People  at Global Climate Conference
    Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Industrial Nations Value Capitalism Over People at Global Climate Conference
    17 Nov 2021
    Inaction on the climate crisis is to be expected when capital is valued more than humanity.
  • Nicaraguans vote - Photo credit Roger D. Harris
    Roger D. Harris
    Nicaragua Has a Public Relations Problem, Not a Democracy Problem
    17 Nov 2021
    Nicaragua's recent elections were conducted with transparency and freedom of choice for voters. The only problem is with the United States and its determination to undo the will of Nicaraguans
  • COP26 Was a Failure But the People's Alternative Can Still Be a Success
    Monthly Review Online
    COP26 Was a Failure But the People's Alternative Can Still Be a Success
    17 Nov 2021
    COP26 ended the way climate summits always do, with promises for change from countries which have every intention of keeping the status quo.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us