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
  • situs toto

Pigment of your Imagination: Black magic mascots, props and sops?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
15 Jul 2021
🖨️ Print Article
Pigment of your Imagination: Black magic mascots, props and sops?
Pigment of your Imagination: Black magic mascots, props and sops?

Could the pigment of your imagination
cause Black magic mascots, props, sops—
Black faces in high places—
to short-circuit electrical gray spaces?

Are you bamboozled by black cat dander-
goober dust-rabbit foot-spook-ism—like 
The Audacity of Dope?
Did you happy dance on ice twice—dangling
from the Drone Ranger’s dick for 8 yrs? Did
the deleterious effect on your mental health 
Paralyze your politics?

You used to dream big—unleashing superstorm muses,
250 MPH winds that dashed aircraft carriers
of commonsense/supertankers of conventional wisdom;
You used to dream big—kindergarten big—seven 
times the size of Africa, Asia, South America combined—
You used to demand the impossible while doin’ the difficult
Daily.

Now you wring your hands, shifting your weight side
to side; peering furtively into the future’s brown eyes.
And since Raytheon’s raven was crowned Warlord, you
go gaga over Super Bowl flyovers and argue there are
Five sides to every story. Worst, you imply bombing
Babies like my 4th grade student here from Yemen is OK… 

Could the pigment of your imagination
cause Black magic mascots, props, sops—
Black faces in high places—to short-circuit electrical gray spaces?

So, are you still superstitious, believing in men you don’t
Understand—men urinating on your head from ‘fiscal cliffs’ 
and teaching your children it’s ‘trickle down?’ Men who go
Low when you get high off Black magic mascots, props and
sops?

© 2021. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.       

Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished poet and performing artist, and an official of the National Writers Union. Find more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com

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

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


  • Djibo Sobukwe
    Five Reasons Black/ African People Should Be in Solidarity with Venezuela
    17 Dec 2025
    Venezuela's revolution is a project of Afro-descendant empowerment and a force against imperialism that has long exploited the African diaspora and the Global South.
  • C.J. Atkins
    ‘We should determine our own future’: Interview with Sudanese Communist Party
    17 Dec 2025
    Foreign powers are responsible for Sudan's destruction. Real peace can only come when the right of self-determination for the Sudanese people is respected.
  • Prince Kapone
    Southern Spear: The American Pole and the Recolonization of the Hemisphere
    17 Dec 2025
    Operation Southern Spear is not a drug war—it is the first open military strike of a new U.S. doctrine: puncture the Caribbean, penetrate the continent, and weld the Americas into a captive bloc of…
  • Zophia Edwards , Corey Gilkes , Tamanisha John
    Imperialism by Invitation: Murder, Mafioso Politics and Caribbean-Venezuelan Futurity
    17 Dec 2025
    Amidst US bombs and lies about Venezuelan drug trafficking as a pretext for regime change, the subordinated position of Caribbean states’ economies plays a role in U.S. aggression.
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio December 12, 2025
    12 Dec 2025
    In this week’s segment, we listen to a press conference in support of the sovereign rights of Venezuela and of the rights of those who support the Venezuelan people to travel to that country. But…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us