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


  • Nigerian Trade Unions Stage Two-day Strike amid Economic Crisis
    Abayomi Azikiwe
    Nigerian Trade Unions Stage Two-day Strike Amid Economic Crisis
    13 Sep 2023
    Nigerian workers went on a two-day strike as the U.S. pressured their government to interfere in neighboring Niger. The people are fighting back against neo-colonial policies that create…
  • How the Black Misleadership Class Provides Cover to Cop City
    Eva Dickerson
    How the Black Misleadership Class Provides Cover to Cop City
    13 Sep 2023
    The Cop City project is just the latest iteration of Black politicians covering up for the white power structure in Atlanta. The community doesn't want Cop City, but so-called leadership don't really…
  • Black Agenda Radio September 8, 2023
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio September 8, 2023
    08 Sep 2023
    Congo police killings, Eritrean festivals attacked, the climate crisis, and resisting US militarism.
  • Protesters Demonstrating Against UN Occupation Are Killed by Police in the Congo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Protesters Demonstrating Against UN Occupation Are Killed by Police in the Congo
    08 Sep 2023
    Maurice Carney is Executive Director of Friends of the Congo.
  • Eritrean Festivals Under Attack
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Eritrean Festivals Under Attack
    08 Sep 2023
    Elias Amare is a journalist and editor at Horn of Africa TV.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us