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

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

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


  • “America” Doesn’t Need Healing. It Needs Socialism
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    “America” Doesn’t Need Healing. It Needs Socialism
    25 Nov 2020
    Biden’s promise to return the United States to “normalcy” comforts corporate executives in the “gig economy,” Wall Street, and the military industrial complex.
  • Uganda’s Youth Majority Brave Police Blockades and Bullets to Rally Behind Bobi Wine
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Uganda’s Youth Majority Brave Police Blockades and Bullets to Rally Behind Bobi Wine
    25 Nov 2020
    US elites may see the writing on the wall in Uganda, where the youth majority population are braving police blockades and bullets to rally behind Bobi Wine.
  •  Black Agenda Radio for Week of November 23, 2020
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of November 23, 2020
    25 Nov 2020
    Reject “Thanks-Taking,” Join in National Day of Mourning
  • Endangering species… 
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Endangering species… 
    25 Nov 2020
    Endangering species— First Negroz and wild Karens in power—members of the Strong- arm Williams-Thom-ass Clarence-led Bassackwards Tribe; Riding mostly 2/4
  • Spies of Mississippi: Mayor Lumumba’s Cops Put Public Under Spyglass
    Adofo Minka
    Spies of Mississippi: Mayor Lumumba’s Cops Put Public Under Spyglass
    25 Nov 2020
    Jackson’s supposedly “radical” Black mayor wants to make surveillance great again in Mississippi.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us