by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
As the farcial and nightmarish presidential contest winds into its final month, we try to make sense of the senseless, and point to the only avenue of possible salvation...
Only WE Can Save US…
by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
If he farts before 6 it’s NEWS—
Trumping Standing Rock resistance,
Prison work stoppages nationwide,
Protests of police murders in Charlotte,
Tulsa, even football games—pro to
high school…
If she faints at 5 it’s NEWS—
If they ‘debate’
Resistance metastasizing like
Campaign lies—back to the back burner!
Every four-years,
Two years of
Dumbed-down,
Head-fixing, fear mongering sowing
Infantile illusions
Of bogeymen and women and
Mantras:
“Make us safe” “Save us”
Meditation pondering
Powerlessness…
We can do better
than planet-destroying parasites in
Pursuit of profits…
mystical market-driven men and
Women with mutilated imaginations
Who make bees and polar bears
disappear
We can do better
than poisoned water and
Poverty
We can do better
than porkers
Piggin’ out on pie charts
of our wealth for eternal war
We can do better
than worship violence—
Police state fundamentalism
Where, according to Old Testament,
they shoot ‘their own people’ and
Books become guns,
Traffic stops, CD sales… death sentences
We can do better
than stand-stolen-
Seminole-Sioux-Cheyenne ground with
concealed weapons on college campuses
We can do better
than prison-pipeline ‘schools’
Following money and blood
Crippling children’s spirits
We can do better
Taking to the streets,
Reservations, football fields, factories prisons—
universities where we teach ourselves to make
Revolution—taste paradise now—imagining
Socialist USA
Raymond Nat Turner © 2016 All Rights Reserved
BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performance artist. Find more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.
These are remarks prepared for a 09/16/25 Covert Action webinar on Neocolonialism in Africa.
The assassination of a far-right demagogue raises the question: when does 'free speech' become a tool for inciting violence? Nations like South Africa and Brazil have decided that some speech is not…
“The youth are getting restless. I can't hear you, Let them hear you all the way to Washington, The youth are getting restless, Own creation, The Youth are Getting Restless, And once again a nation,…
"School Shooting Du Jour. War Of The Week" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
Bolsonaro’s conviction is not a victory for democracy but a revelation of its fragility. It exposes a military that remains the armed wing of the ruling class and a fascist project dedicated to…
