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


  • Atlantic City's Black Community Fights for Justice
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Atlantic City's Black Community Fights for Justice
    08 Jul 2022
    On July 4, 2020, seven Black men were arrested while protesting the police killing of George Floyd. But Atlantic City’s black community also suffers from ineffective political leadership, corporate…
  •  Democrats Remove Green Party from North Carolina Ballot
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Democrats Remove Green Party from North Carolina Ballot
    08 Jul 2022
    The Democratic Party succeeded in using voter intimidation and political pressure to remove the Green Party from ballot access in North Carolina. Tony Ndege is an organizer and co-Chair of the North…
  • Protesting for Jayland Walker
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Protesting for Jayland Walker
    06 Jul 2022
    The number of bullets used to kill Jayland Walker have sparked an outcry, but police kill one Black person every day in this country. If systemic change is not the demand all protest is for…
  • SPEECH: The Black Revolution is Part of World-wide Struggle, Malcolm X, 1964
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    SPEECH: The Black Revolution is Part of World-wide Struggle, Malcolm X, 1964
    06 Jul 2022
    Malcolm X reminds us of the deceit of liberals, the power of international thinking, and the coming of Black revolution.
  • Taiwan and the Making of an “Asian” NATO
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Taiwan and the Making of an “Asian” NATO
    06 Jul 2022
    The United States wants to turn Taiwan into an Asian Ukraine. The goal is to use it as a weapon against a China, a country that has been declared an adversary.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us