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

Deliver us from lesser evil…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
04 Sep 2018
🖨️ Print Article
deliver us from lesser evil
front row at Aretha's funeral

Star-struck, in childlike

awe of celestial

Voices, silver tongues;

I spent seven hours

glued to the screen—

back in the Baptist Church,

Celebrating, honoring the

humanitarian, North Star

Shero—genius in her field!

What a day, imbibing

Mighty Black Music!

Joyful noise, Lake Michigan-

sized magnet, gathering forces

elbow to elbow—

Enemies, Orange Age

Allies on the clock…

Basking in reflected light,

Assassins, informants, jailers,

Mouthpieces, mass murderers,

super predators, slutty professors

came riding, riding, riding, riding

bare-back, backwards on a

Donkey to The D.

Riding in corporate coats

of many logos—then

Limboing their way

Center stage, tracking

donkey dung down the

red carpet; playing

our emotions, our

Souls, our strength—

our Achilles’ heel

like plastic kazoos:

resurrecting the

Democratic Party…

© 2018. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Our poet in residence, Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed performing artist. Find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

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


  • What Police Impunity Looks Like
    Eric Umansky
    What Police Impunity Looks Like
    21 Apr 2021
    They came into his own home and took his life for no reason.
  • Letters from Our Readers
    Jahan Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers
    21 Apr 2021
    This week pro-Zionist censorship and police brutality were on your minds.
  • BAR Book Forum: Alaina E. Roberts’ “I’ve Been Here All the While”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Alaina E. Roberts’ “I’ve Been Here All the While”
    21 Apr 2021
    Five Indian nations brought their Black slaves on the Trail of Tears and it was Black labor that helped them rebuild.
  • BAR Book Forum: Kathryn Yusoff’s “A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Kathryn Yusoff’s “A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None”
    21 Apr 2021
    Climate change is materialized through a racialized praxis, and those materialities of race produce racialized climates of survival.
  • US Joins Past Empires In Afghan Graveyard
    Medea Benjamin, Nicolas J.S. Davies
    US Joins Past Empires In Afghan Graveyard
    21 Apr 2021
    President Biden announced a removal of all U.S. troops by September 11, but he failed to include some important details.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us