by Raymond Nat Turner
…be like Mike…
by Raymond Nat Turner
(For Michael Lange, teacher, mentor, friend, peer)
The quizzical look, the small
Gesture you taught me, made
All the difference in the world;
Made me, made John Brown’s Truth
Better, like the “Ballot or The Bullet”
Made the Million Worker March fund-
Raiser during ’04’s election charade
Better; like “What to the Slave Is the
Fourth of July” made our Frederick
Douglass Day /Alternative 4th of July
Celebrations better, for these reasons &
MORE:
I wanna be like Mike—
Practicing spiritual Aikido,
Becoming buff lifting others
Up, bodybuilding, building big
Big, warm, welcoming tents on
Towering plateaus of possitivity…
I wanna be like Mike—
Dream weaver spinning dramaturgical
Straw into gold, thespian talent into
Horace Silver/Wayne Shorter stage
Genius, super nova shining brightly
Between two Saturn-size shadows
I wanna be like Mike—
Times Square, off-Broadway,
Handling Town Biz, giving the Brit
Royal Shakespeare alum as good as
She gave, elongating our spines
I wanna be like Mike—
Black-Black, double Black,
Triple Black to the 3rd power,
Quoting Malcolm forwards,
Backwards, sidearm, overhand,
33, 45, 78, but not stuck like a
Hissing, popping needle in worn
60s grooves, with feats from
Yesteryear, repeating the
First three words of “Misty…”
Someday, not today,
I wanna be like Mike—
Great performance, fooling fans
Like me, an Ali ‘comeback’ V.
Holmes, I believed you’d upstage
Death, steal his scene, use it for
Redemption, use it to teach us to not
Fear, sanitize or gloss over your great
Antagonist with sticky, sweet, ‘transitions,’
‘Crossovers,’ like famous lines of a lion
In classic script; none of us, your adoring fans,
Really know where you go after this show,
All we really know is that you are answering
Our curtain call, bowing, basking, basking,
Bowing, in blinding light of tear refracted LOVE,
Solemn standing ovations, sustained applause…
Raymond Nat Turner © 2015 All Rights Reserved
"Did New Yorkers say, No Mo Cuomo; No Mo Turkey Trot with Papa Cop?" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
The causes of the July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence are rarely taught in this country. The American colonists chafed under British rules limiting their settlements and feared they would…
America’s gentrified neighborhoods have lost 500,000 Black people, while gaining residents of every other race, a study finds.
With an anticipated tens of thousands of international travelers for the World Cup and the Olympic Games, U.S. immigration policy has made it a dangerous place to visit. Both the U.S. and Israel…
Mali’s mining code change in 2024 puts pressure on foreign companies in the country.
