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


  • Hanna Eid
    Whole Process People's Democracy: The Path Forward
    14 May 2025
    Growing socialist and people's democratic projects, as in China and Bolivia, must be seen as examples of how revolutionary forces in the United States can build a system of governance. 
  • The Cradle News Desk
    US Abandons 'Hamas Disarmament' Demands in Gaza Truce Talks: Report
    14 May 2025
    A reported rift between Trump and Netanyahu continues to widen ahead of the US president's first visit to West Asia since regaining power.
  • Tennyson S.D. Joseph
    False Promises, False Hopes: The Africa-CARICOM Summit
    14 May 2025
    A forward-looking critique of African and Caribbean collaborations embodied in the Africa-Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Summit.
  • Abayomi Azikiwe
    DRC- Rwanda Agreement Could Prove Disastrous for African Great Lakes
    14 May 2025
    The United States' role in Central Africa has resulted in regional war and mass casualties.
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio May 9, 2025
    09 May 2025
    In this week’s segment, we discuss the 80th anniversary of victory in Europe in World War II, and the disinformation that centers on the U.S.'s role and dismisses the pivotal Soviet role in that…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us