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

He’s under suspicion…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
24 Feb 2021
🖨️ Print Article
He’s under suspicion…
He’s under suspicion…

The rioters all knew him—
it had to be an inside job—
‘cause to a man they spoke
to him by name as they
breached the building.
Read their lips…

And that staged chase? 
Please…
Why, if it had been real he
would have done what any
Officer fearing for his life would
have done—Any officer who feared
for his life the year before would
have done—Any officer who might
fear for his life in the next four
years would have done… Trust me.

And they pulled their punches—
sure he suffered a shiner,
busted lip; chipped tooth—
but he took those for the team…

Are you going to tell me that he
didn’t even have his name tag on
and every marauder greeted him:
“Officer N.Word—“ “N.” for short?”

© 2021. 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

Or, you can comment by emailing us at comments@blackagendareport.com   

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

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!”
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
Pigment of your Imagination: Black magic mascots, props and sops?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Pigment of your Imagination: Black magic mascots, props and sops?
15 July 2021
Could the pigment of your imagination cause Black magic mascots, props, sops— Black faces in high places—
A known known…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A known known…
08 July 2021
“…there are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known
Twerkers of the World you might…(Or when they go low we get high?)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Twerkers of the World you might…(Or when they go low we get high?)
01 July 2021
“History repeats itself,  first as tragedy, second as farce.” —Karl Marx

More Stories


  • barbuda beach after hurricane irma
    Dr. Matthew Quest , Latino Media Collective
    Barbuda Fights Enclosures and Neoliberal Dispossession After Hurricane Irma
    01 Aug 2018
    The attempts by the neoliberal government of Antigua to dispossess and enclose Barbuda, where traditional communal land rights have persevered till this day, are continuing, but not without vigorou
  • Trump and the Politics of Neoliberal Distraction
    Ajamu Baraka , BAR editor and columnist
    Trump and the Politics of Neoliberal Distraction
    01 Aug 2018
    “If Trump decides to ‘throw a whistle-blower in jail for trying to talk to a reporter, or gets the F.B.I.
  • Freedom Rider: Russiagate Covers Up Black Vote Theft
    Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Russiagate Covers Up Black Vote Theft
    01 Aug 2018
    “The Democrats want our votes, but if we aren’t allowed to vote at all they pretend not to know.”
  • As it Screams Russia, the Ruling Class Continues its Process of Elimination
    Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
    As it Screams Russia, the Ruling Class Continues its Process of Elimination
    01 Aug 2018
    “Millions of Black people have been funneled into the mass Black incarceration state as a means to account for the disposability of their labor and the threat that their resistance has
  • Afro-Pessimism and the (Un)Logic of Anti-Blackness
    Annie Olaloku-Teriba
    Afro-Pessimism and the (Un)Logic of Anti-Blackness
    01 Aug 2018
    “The meme of militant Black America has been allowed to cannibalise the broader traditions of resistance within which those militants were situated.”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us