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


  • Said Bouamama Blog
    Settler Colonialism in Light of F. Fanon: Algeria yesterday, Kanaky today... (Part 1)
    09 Jul 2025
    As settler-colonial violence escalates from Kanaky to Palestine, Fanon’s century-old warnings are critical today—capitalism’s genocidal expansion demands revolution.
  • Inae Oh
    What $100 Billion in New ICE Funding Would Look Like
    09 Jul 2025
    The staggering increase is ICE enforcement is difficult to process. These numbers will help.
  • Margaret Kimberley and Dimitri Lascaris
    Dimitri Lascaris , Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Donald Trump's Big, Beautiful Con-Job w/ Margaret Kimberley
    09 Jul 2025
    This past week, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed Donald Trump's signature budget bill, which Trump dubbed "One Big Beautiful Bill Act". Dimitri Lascaris spoke with Margaret…
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio July 4, 2025
    04 Jul 2025
    In this week’s segment, we discuss navigating celebrity culture and liberation politics. Also, organizers will convene in Philadelphia to mobilize on behalf of Mumia Abu Jamal. But first, we learn…
  • Legal Defense Fund
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Birthright Citizenship and the Supreme Court
    04 Jul 2025
    On Inauguration Day, Donald Trump issued an Executive Order which stated that the federal government would require proof of parental citizenship or permanent residency in order to grant birthright…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us