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
  • omnibus

this year's coup
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
14 Mar 2019
🖨️ Print Article
Venezuela's fantasy president, Juan Guiado with co-sponsors President Marquez of Colombia and US vice president Mike Pence
Venezuela's fantasy president Juan Guiado

Who knew him
five days ago?
Today, he’s Play Dough—
President—
in handlers oily hands…
Brazen 1% switcheroo,
another king nobody knew—
rosy World Bank worldview
Championing the well-to-do…

Who knew they’d install him?
Or, just what they’d call him?
Maybe he’d be called “the law?”
Maybe he’d be crowned “Shah?”
Or—just for a sense of déjà vu—
Maybe “Mobutu” might do…
for a name in this year’s coup?

© 2019. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished poet and performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

Venezuela
poetry

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


More Stories


  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: This is Criminal, Malik Rahim, New Orleans, September 1st, 2005
    27 Aug 2025
    “It’s not like New Orleans was caught off guard. This could have been prevented.”
  • Jon Jeter
    From Jim Crow to Katrina to Gentrification, Tracing the Rise and Fall of New Orleans Working Class
    27 Aug 2025
    A forgotten history of cross-racial labor solidarity in 1890s New Orleans offered a glimpse of a potential future. Its deliberate destruction set the stage for the city's modern transformation into a…
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Synergy of the Sacrificed: Katrina and the Praxis of Imperial Domination
    27 Aug 2025
    Twenty years after Katrina, the disaster stands not as an anomaly but as a blueprint. Its aftermath reveals a template for imperial domination, where "natural" disasters become pretexts for…
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    "Inequality in Kenya: View from Kibera" Documentary Premieres August 28
    27 Aug 2025
    Join political activist and Black Agenda Report’s contributing editor Ajamu Baraka and members of the Communist Party Marxist-Kenya on a trip to Kibera, Africa’s largest slum.
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Ethnic cleansing called Katrina
    27 Aug 2025
    "Ethnic cleansing called Katrina" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us