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

Imagine: The Town Crier’s Cabinet Selections
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
16 Dec 2020
🖨️ Print Article
Imagine: The Town Crier’s Cabinet Selections
Imagine: The Town Crier’s Cabinet Selections

Cut plastic cuffs from
imaginations—
Dream larger
in dire situations…
IMAGINE every cook governing—
every governor cooking up people
puzzles—right livelihood alchemy…

Imagine noble collective leadership
Not repeatedly recycled
depleted uranium mummies buried
in bowels of the War House; Imagine
more than revolving door robots…

Cut plastic cuffs from
imaginations—
Dream larger
in dire situations…
IMAGINE every cook governing—
every governor cooking up people
puzzles—right livelihood alchemy…

Imagine grand collective leadership—
Not white phosphorus ghosts
haunting Capitalist Hill—
Not lawless low Barr, Silly Putty
puppets dangling on dicks of dictators:

Attorney Generals:
Larry E. Williams; Walter Riley; Michael Steven Smith; Heidi Boghosian;
Flint Taylor; Soffiyah Elijah; Fania Davis; Ben Crump; Karen Musalo…

Secretariat of Health and Human Services:
Steffie Woolhandler; Michael Lenoir; Margaret Flowers; Ahimsa Porter Sumchai;
September Williams; Nadia Marsh; Marc Sapir; Priscilla Hindmann; Jill Stein…

Secretariat of Housing and Urban Development:
Nellie Bailey; Wiley Cunningham; Caroll Fife; Lisa Gray-Garcia; Oliver Burke;
Janelle Orsi; Miguel Muteado Silencio…

Secretariat of Agriculture:
Jen Mendoza; Velia Perez; Ruth Faircloth; Tammy Parkes; Dominic Ware;
Malik Yakini; Greg Asbed…

Secretariat of Labor:
Karen Lewis; Sarah Nelson; The Real Clarence Thomas; Brenda Stokley; Cherrie Murphy; Ken Riley; Veena Dubal; Tim Hall; Chris Silvera; Larry Goldbetter; Tim Sheard; Steve Gilbert; Steve Zeltzer; Jack Heyman; Harold Welton; Topaz DuBois…

Secretariat of Education:
Donna Murch; Bill Ayers; Henry Giroux; Betty Olson Jones; Johanna Fernandez; Jonathan Kozol; Kitty Kelly Epstein; Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor; Russell Dale; K.C. Nat Turner…

Administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency:
Tara Houska; Marsha Coleman-Adebayo; Naomi Klein…

Secretariat of Energy:
Madonna Thunder Hawk; Jo Ann Tall; Autumn Peltier; Naelyn Pike; Tokata
Iron Eyes; Antonia Juhasz…

Secretariat of the Treasury:
Rick Wolff; Michael Hudson; Nomi Prins…

Secretariat of Homeland Security:
Leonard Peltier; Pam Africa; Kali Akuno; Ramona Africa; Dequi Kioni-Sadik; Tamika Mallory; Medea Benjamin…

Secretary of Veterans Affairs:
Chip Fitzgerald; Mumia Abu Jamal; Laura Whitehorn; Anne Lamb; Sekou Odinga;
Russell Maroon Shoats; Kevin Cooper; David Gilbert; Ralph Poynter; Carl Dix…

Directors of the Central Intelligence Agency:
Chelsea Manning; Bunnatine "Bunny" H. Greenhouse; Daniel Ellsberg; Reality Winner…

Directors of National Intelligence:
Gerald Horne; Angela Davis; Chris Hedges; Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz…

Secretariat of State:
Assata Shakur; Edward Snowden; Vijay Prashad; Linda Sarsour…

FCC Commissioners:
Amy Goodman; Glen Ford; Davey D Cook; Juan Gonzalez; Jared Ball; David Cay Johnston; Mimi Rosenberg; Robert McChesney; Michael G. Haskins; Thandisizwe Chimurenga…

© 2020. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

 

My Wise Country Cousin on: de MAGnifcent Sebben meetin’ 

Bet you thank de Sharlitun Possey ridin’ a’gin big news to me?
I tolt you years ago… “Keep yo’ eyes on de Blak Boozewazee!”
Dem korprit Negroz rode in to see Ol’ Blak Schmo an’ Ladee Blu—
To fin’ out jes' whut Tio Tomas an’ de big bosses wan’ ‘em to do…

Dem Negroz rode in barebak an’ bakwuds on dey lil ol’ donkees—
2 hrs. latur dey shufflin’ an’ ‘Han’ Jibin’ lak de Three Monkees…
Ol’ Sharlitun grin, “Now, we don’ wanna take de poleece away—
An’ lawd Jeezus know dat we ain’t about ta mess wit dey pay!”
“Y’all see dis’ lil donkee—he low to de groun’—he mountabull?
Well, we jes’ axin’ dat de poleece promus dey’ll be akountabull…”

He say, “We’ll stop dat millitunt cownrow chik an’ de Mooselum gal!”
Souf Calina's kingmakur say, “Why, dats jes’ why we calt on you, Al…”
Den dey rode off, Cristal halos, bludshot eyes frum ober-indulgin’… 
30 pieces ob silbur  gleamin’ an’ bran nu saddulbags… bulgin’…

© 2020. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

BAR’s poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished performing artist. You can find much more of his work at https://www.youtube.com/user/zigilow

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

poetry

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


Related Stories

Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Poem for Walter Rodney, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, 1981  
11 June 2025
“any where or world where there is love there is the sky and its blue free
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A few lines for the Poet Ojenke...
21 May 2025
RIP: Rise In Poetics to Ra
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Reflections after the June 12th March of Disarmament, Sonia Sanchez, 1982
18 December 2024
“I have come to you tonite not just for the stoppage
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Love My Black Job
11 September 2024
Love my Black Job— Black Student Union Job! Hired at L.A. City College As “The Peoples Poet!”
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Enemy of the Sun, Samih al-Qasim, 1970
29 May 2024
Read against the terrible incineration of Rafah today, this poem of resistance and refusal, by Pa
Image of Refaat Alareer sitting in a crowd of graduates
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: If I Must Die, Refaat Alareer, 2023
13 December 2023
Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, a martyr of zionist state genocidal violence, has left us with a tale of resistance and hope.
Protest for Palestine at the White House
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Trigger Warning
22 November 2023
Trigger Warning Palestine’s the Answer— What was the Question?
Another June 1
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Another June 1
07 June 2023
                                       
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
16 February 2022
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Our ‘democracy’
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Our ‘democracy’
23 July 2021
Shangri-La—untaxed, socially-distanced champagne- caviar, Cayman Island, yacht crowds who

More Stories


  • Maurice Carney
    United States Secures its National Security Interests In Congo Peace Deal
    10 Dec 2025
    The so-called "peace agreement" between Rwanda and Congo prioritizes U.S. access to mineral riches. The violence carried out against thousands of civilians continues.
  • x
    Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Year in Rear View: What the Lack of Principled and Pronounced Opposition Reveals About that US Left (Or, Why Oppressed People Best Watch Your Backs)
    10 Dec 2025
    Trump’s accelerated fascism is met with the silence of a compromised U.S. "left." Its institutions, tethered to capitalism and the Democratic Party, reveal they are part of the machine they claim to…
  • Essam Elkorghli
    De-Baathification 2.0: One Year Since the Fall of Syria
    10 Dec 2025
    Western media celebrate the terrorist they supported as Syria's savior. Syria’s new U.S.-backed rulers have erased anti-colonial history, enacted neo-liberal policies, and welcomed Israeli occupation…
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio December 5, 2025
    05 Dec 2025
    In this week’s segment, we hear about events in the West African nation of Guinea-Bissau, a disputed election, and a so-called coup that was actually carried out on behalf of the president. But first…
  • Margaret Kimberley and Jamarl Thomas
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    China Cannot Be Contained
    05 Dec 2025
    Margaret Kimberley was a guest on the Jamarl Thomas YouTube Channel. We present excerpts of the discussion of her contribution to the new anthology China Changes Everything. Her chapter is entitled "…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us