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

Circus on Capitalist Hill (Comey don’t play that…)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
13 Jun 2017
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Big doings this week up there between the War House and the Rogues Garden. Our poet reports on the show, clowns, cloven hooves and all.

 

Circus on Capitalist Hill (Comey don’t play that…)

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

A senile clown questions the wind
Hearing what he’s heard
hundreds of times before:
Step right up, ladies and gentlemen
into the smoke and
mirror swamp, draining
Anything not nailed down

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen
to sideshow puppetry
Millionaire-billionaire buffoonery
Crooked clowns hiding behind corkscrews
Conniving clowns with
cloven hooves and horns
turning fruits of our labor
into ATMs

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen
suspend disbelief,
Don’t follow the money
pay No attention to
1% pickpockets
Working the perimeter

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen
enter the Capitalist Hill,
War House, Rogue Garden,
Offal Office, White
Supreme Court matrix—
Big Top, bleaching brains,
fooling fools and babies
Riding bareback and backwards
on donkeys and elephants
Babbling ‘bout “our democracy”

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen
See the greatest show on turf
pebbles posing as diamonds,
Fascism as ‘democracy’
with redacted rights…

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen
See the clown trick
Un-framing, freeing an Indigenous
Warrior caged four decades

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen
See the clown trick
sliding cells open pneumatically,
Freeing COINTELPRO, Black Power
political prisoners, prisoners of war—

“I didn’t think so— Comey don’t play that…”

Raymond Nat Turner © 2017 All Rights Reserved
Raymond Nat Turndr is an acclaimed poet and performance artist. find much 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


  • Pan-Africanism Yes! U.S. AFRICOM and NATO No!
    Abayomi Azikiwe
    Pan-Africanism Yes! U.S. AFRICOM and NATO No!
    31 May 2022
    Pan-African solidarity and the struggle against imperialism are key in advancing the condition of African states and peoples.
  • Black Agenda Radio May 27, 2022
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio May 27, 2022
    27 May 2022
    East New York Community Land Trust reports on NYPD use of vacant land, John Parker's fact-finding trip to Russia and Ukraine, and a Greenville, North Carolina organizer explains the significance of…
  • East New York Community Land Trust Reports on NYPD Use of Vacant Land
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    East New York Community Land Trust Reports on NYPD Use of Vacant Land
    27 May 2022
    Boris Santos is Treasurer of the East New York Community Land Trust Board of Directors, and Debra Ayck is the Board’s Secretary. The Land Trust held a press conference on May 21st at which they…
  • John Parker's Fact-finding Trip to Russia and Ukraine
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    John Parker's Fact-finding Trip to Russia and Ukraine
    27 May 2022
    John Parker is a member of the Socialist Unity party and a senatorial candidate on the Peace and Freedom party ticket in California. He just returned from a fact-finding trip to Russia and Ukraine.…
  • Greenville, North Carolina Organizer Explains Significance of African Liberation Day
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Greenville, North Carolina Organizer Explains Significance of African Liberation Day
    27 May 2022
    Mapinduzi is a Greenville, North Carolina community organization dedicated to advancing political education. Mapinduzi is planning African Liberation Day events on Saturday, May 28. We spoke…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us