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


  • ESSAY: Black Studies in the Age of Obama: John H. Bracey, Jr. 2011
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Black Studies in the Age of Obama: John H. Bracey, Jr. 2011
    08 Feb 2023
    The late John H. Bracey, Jr. argued that Black Studies should be wedded to African liberation, not to the corporate-bureaucratic structure of the university.
  • Global Economic Forecast Reveals the Perils of U.S. Addiction to War
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Global Economic Forecast Reveals the Perils of U.S. Addiction to War
    08 Feb 2023
    The U.S. has declared China to be an adversary, but its economic prowess cannot be eclipsed by a nation that is addicted to provocation and war making. 
  • Ruchell Magee Must Be Set Free!
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Ruchell Magee Must Be Set Free!
    08 Feb 2023
                                                         
  •  BAR Book Forum: Brian Jones’ Book, “The Tuskegee Student Uprising”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Brian Jones’ Book, “The Tuskegee Student Uprising”
    08 Feb 2023
    This week’s featured author is Brian Jones. Jones is Director of The New York Public Library’s Center for Educators and Schools. His book is The Tuskegee Student Uprising: A History.
  • BAR Book Forum: Interview with Moya Bailey
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Interview with Moya Bailey
    08 Feb 2023
    This week’s featured scholar is Moya Bailey. Bailey is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University. Her article is “The Ethics of Pace.”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us