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

2/4 Dance Don’t Cut It
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
18 Jan 2018
🖨️ Print Article
2/4 Dance Don’t Cut It
2/4 Dance Don’t Cut It

“Pay, or die…” the Death
Sentence Big Pharma-
Insurance Mob just issued
a neighbor; and a Frankenfood
experiment’s irritating my gut

The water smells swampy some days,
like bleach others; Tents grow in night
air like multi-colored mushrooms—crazy
cancer cells; Another school’s shuttered,
its teachers scattered in the wind, like
pencil sharpener shavings—Money for
Bombs, not for books—Wow, the wars
went from seven to nine this week…

Here they come again with Fear:
‘Freedom of Choice,’ binary bad
or worse options—hiking uphill
barefoot, in elephant excrement,
donkey dung to take one—with or
without Vaseline—from the1% again

I’m not sure I have another 8 yrs
for translating, deciphering slogans:
“Regime…change you can believe in!”
“Yes, we can…and bottle Jim Jones Juice!”
as silly spoils of celebrity-worship;
Isn’t it time for Adult Politics?

Isn’t it time to abandon Infantile
Exercises—searching for saviors
Every 2 to 4 yrs—and Nominate
Meeting More Than Four Corners;
Donate to Door-To-Door; Phone Bank
for Boycott; Campaign for Consciousness;
Support Shoe Leather-Street Heat running for
Raising roofs, planting food, curing cancer?

poetry

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


More Stories


  • Haiti
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: United States Oppresses Haitian Masses, Hermina Dumont, 1930
    13 Mar 2024
    A 1930 essay by Black activist Hermina Dumont Huiswood tells of the bold resistance of the Haitian population to U.S. occupation, and offers hope for the resistance to come in 2024.
  • African Stream host
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    African Stream
    13 Mar 2024
    African Stream is an anti-war, anti-imperialist video and text website based in Nairobi, Kenya. Ann Garrison spoke to its founder, Ahmed Kaballo.
  • Democracy political cartoon
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    When bagman Vigor Moribund came to town
    13 Mar 2024
    "When bagman Vigor Moribund came to town" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Onyesonwu Chatoyer
    Roberto Sirvent , Onyesonwu Chatoyer
    “A victory in Palestine is a victory for Africa and Africans”: An Interview with Onyesonwu Chatoyer
    13 Mar 2024
    Book Forum Editor, Roberto Sirvent, interviews Onyesonwu Chatoyer about her political organizing and work as a writer and editor.
  • Kathy Hochul at press conference
    Ashoka Jegroo
    New York's Top Democrats Turn New York City Into A Pro-Israel Police State
    13 Mar 2024
    New York Democrats are fueling the panic over a fictional crime wave to increase surveillance and police presence in NYC.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us