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


  • U.S. Corporate Media Watch: An Interview with Richard Medhurst
    Richard Medhurst and Roberto Sirvent
    U.S. Corporate Media Watch: An Interview with Richard Medhurst
    03 Aug 2021
    Glen Ford was a fierce champion of the anti-imperialist cause.
  • Farewell to Glen Ford, A True Friend to Eritrea
    Elias Amare
    Farewell to Glen Ford, A True Friend to Eritrea
    03 Aug 2021
    Ford's reporting on Eritrea exemplified his commitment to African liberation.
  • Glen Ford’s Passing – Devastating Blow for Africans Everywhere
    Milton Allimadi
    Glen Ford’s Passing – Devastating Blow for Africans Everywhere
    02 Aug 2021
    Glen Ford was committed to the liberation of African people.
  • Glen Ford – From Elder to Ancestor
    Ready for the Revolution
    Glen Ford – From Elder to Ancestor
    02 Aug 2021
    Ford led the way in political education. “I’m telling you these stories because that is what elders do, we remember things” - Glen Ford
  • Glen Ford and Haiti: A Tribute
    Danny Haiphong and Margaret Kimberley
    Glen Ford and Haiti: A Tribute
    30 Jul 2021
    Danny Haiphong and Margaret Kimberley are joined by Dr.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us