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

Circus on Capitalist Hill (Comey don’t play that…)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
13 Jun 2017
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Big doings this week up there between the War House and the Rogues Garden. Our poet reports on the show, clowns, cloven hooves and all.

 

Circus on Capitalist Hill (Comey don’t play that…)

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

A senile clown questions the wind
Hearing what he’s heard
hundreds of times before:
Step right up, ladies and gentlemen
into the smoke and
mirror swamp, draining
Anything not nailed down

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen
to sideshow puppetry
Millionaire-billionaire buffoonery
Crooked clowns hiding behind corkscrews
Conniving clowns with
cloven hooves and horns
turning fruits of our labor
into ATMs

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen
suspend disbelief,
Don’t follow the money
pay No attention to
1% pickpockets
Working the perimeter

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen
enter the Capitalist Hill,
War House, Rogue Garden,
Offal Office, White
Supreme Court matrix—
Big Top, bleaching brains,
fooling fools and babies
Riding bareback and backwards
on donkeys and elephants
Babbling ‘bout “our democracy”

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen
See the greatest show on turf
pebbles posing as diamonds,
Fascism as ‘democracy’
with redacted rights…

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen
See the clown trick
Un-framing, freeing an Indigenous
Warrior caged four decades

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen
See the clown trick
sliding cells open pneumatically,
Freeing COINTELPRO, Black Power
political prisoners, prisoners of war—

“I didn’t think so— Comey don’t play that…”

Raymond Nat Turner © 2017 All Rights Reserved
Raymond Nat Turndr is an acclaimed poet and performance artist. find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

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


More Stories


  • Michael Jordan’s “Last Dance:” A Celebration of the American Nightmare
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Michael Jordan’s “Last Dance:” A Celebration of the American Nightmare
    27 May 2020
    Michael Jordan embodies the kind of athlete and Black leader that the U.S. ruling class has gone to great lengths to cultivate.
  • For Breonna Taylor (And my Bry)
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    For Breonna Taylor (And my Bry)
    27 May 2020
    How I wish I could sing her name  like Brother Ray or ‘Ree— ‘Cause Breonna Taylor’s real close  to Bryana Turner to me
  • On African Liberation Day, the Black Alliance for Peace Demands U.S. Shut Down AFRICOM
    Black Alliance For Peace
    On African Liberation Day, the Black Alliance for Peace Demands U.S. Shut Down AFRICOM
    27 May 2020
    The US Military Command in Africa allows Washington and its European allies to dominate the continent and its resources.
  • Letters from Our Readers 
    Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers 
    27 May 2020
    Recently, readers have been discussing democratic socialists, American exceptionalism, and identity politics.
  • BAR Book Forum: Vincent Brown’s “Tacky’s Revolt”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Vincent Brown’s “Tacky’s Revolt”
    27 May 2020
    The Jamaican slave revolt of 1760-1761 was one war within an interlinked network of other wars.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us