Editors Note: The following are two poems written by poet extraordinaire Raymond Nat Turner. Turner is Resident Poet at Black Agenda Report, a foremost news and analysis web site of African affairs.
The two poems here were inspired by Turner's attendance at the November 1 and 2 Black is Back Coalition's March on Washington, D.C. and Teach-in at Howard University.
Raymond Nat Turner also presented outstanding cultural performances at both the rally ad teach-in. This is cultural work for the Revolution!
l.
November Sunday afternoon and 30,
Maybe even 40, Howard University
Food workers are lined up in
The basement, barely breathing,
Body language fluently tense,
Fingers crossed, totally focused,
Wishing, willing sudden death
Overtime for Washington’s
Football franchise, trailing the
Minnesota Vikings 26 to 29…
Men from the third floor fraternity
Function are also watching on screens
On the ground level, along with men and
Some women from the second floor Soul
Food Extravaganza
Today, they care more about fate
Of Washington’s football franchise
Than Reparations Brother Kamm
Is speaking on; more about the
Score than the Ebola Alert Sister
Aisha is breaking down; more about
What Dallas is doing than Waycross,
Orlando and Ferguson mothers delivered
Sudden death from trigger fingers of
Assassins with badges; more about Snyder’s
Enterprise than Sister Marsha’s masterful
Deconstruction of slave patrols, AKA police;
More about RG3 than BIB, POP, or APSP!
However, because Black is Back
History is fueling my gut
With a day, not too far off, when these
Football fanatics’ team loyalties shift and
They arrive by five, New Balance, Nike,
Prada, Addidas, etc., in hand for hurling
Spirals, strikes, at war criminal, capitalist
Politicians whose kickbacks and bribes
Are the price of poverty, misery and
Uncertainty the food workers suffer…
II.
War on this or that,
Poor folk pass the hat.
Working people bleed,
Children go in need
Cripple, dead or blind,
“No Child Left Behind”
We get taxed and fined
Keep deep pockets lined—
Demo-can-Republi-crat
Fat cats still get fat!
Big lies all the time
Reason and rhyme
Old jingoist slime
For organized crime
“The American Way—
Workers have no say
Election bought and sold
Pols do as they’re told
In Wall Street’s attack
They bomb and frack
Warlords on our back
Beat back their attack!
Speak in our own name
Like MWM and AIM
SNCC and F-T-A
All show the way…
Brown, white, yellow, red
May their spirit spread
Like Black Is Back
‘Gainst Wall Street attack…
Montgomery ain’t gone
Rosa Parks lives on—
E.D. Nixon, too
Movement overdue
Taking up the slack
Resisting the attack
Off the mule’s back
Out the cul-de-sac
Trane back on track—
BLACK IS BACK!
Raymond Nat Turner 2014 All Rights Reserved
