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


  • Margaret Kimberley on with Danny Haiphong
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist , Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor , Garland Nixon
    Hezbollah Readies War, Israel's Pager Attack Ignites Fury | Garland Nixon & Margaret Kimberley
    25 Sep 2024
    BAR executive Editor, Margaret Kimberley, and Garland Nixon join Danny Haiphong to break down Israel's devastating pager attack on Lebanon and what it means for the possible outbreak of war after…
  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio September 20, 2024
    20 Sep 2024
    In this week’s segment, we learn about Aurora, Colorado, where a landlord used right-wing media to create a story of a non-existent gang crisis just as he was ordered to court to address violations…
  • Jill Stein and Butch Ware
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Dr. Butch Ware on his Green Party Vice Presidential Campaign
    20 Sep 2024
    Dr. Butch Ware joins us from Santa Barbara to discuss the Green Party’s campaign, why it is under a sustained attack by Democrats, and what that means for black voters.
  • Colorado apartment
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Landlord and Right Wing Media Create Story of Aurora, Colorado Gangs
    20 Sep 2024
    D. Musa Springer joins us to discuss reports that Venezuelan gangs have taken over apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado, and the reality, that a landlord used right-wing media falsehoods to cover…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Haiti and Springfield, Ohio
    18 Sep 2024
    Haitians are unforgiven for waging a successful Black revolution. Racism follows wherever they go, even in a state like Ohio, which is in need of a labor force and a larger population. Of course,…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us