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

Only WE Can Save US…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
28 Sep 2016
🖨️ Print Article

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.

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • US Palestinian Community Network
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    U.S. Palestinian Community Network on the Gaza Peace Agreement
    17 Oct 2025
    Donald Trump traveled to Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt to sign what is being called a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian resistance that he takes credit for brokering. But what are the…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Nobel War Prize
    15 Oct 2025
    The Nobel Peace Prize is an anachronism and a compromised “honor” as the struggle against the U.S. and its collective west allies intensifies. The peoples of the world know who is fighting for peace…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: David and Goliath Collaborate in Africa, Africa Research Group, 1969
    15 Oct 2025
    “Israel has played a relatively invisible but strategically important role in Africa as a servant of the United States…”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Dr. Denis Mukwege’s Nobel Peace Prize Brought No Peace to the Congolese
    15 Oct 2025
    Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to “the man who heals women” made Euro-Americans feel good without interrupting their catastrophic proxy war for Congo’s resources.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Israel’s Perpetual War Machine Demonstrates that Environmental Warfare is a Tool, Not a Consequence of Genocide and Settler Colonialism
    15 Oct 2025
    Environmental destruction in Gaza is a calculated military strategy. By poisoning the land and water, Israel is ensuring a permanent and toxic genocide.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us