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

be like Mike
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
03 Jun 2015
🖨️ Print Article

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

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


More Stories


  • Berthony Dupont
    How the OAS Works for Imperialism in Haiti
    07 Oct 2026
    The armed groups in Haiti are not a spontaneous wave of banditry, but a scheme orchestrated by imperialist powers in concert with a reactionary and subservient Haitian political class. The…
  • The Coalition for the Elimination of Imperialism in Africa
    CEIA Launches International Pan-African Solidarity Campaign for the Republic of Cuba
    07 Oct 2026
    A coalition of Pan-African and socialist organizations has launched an international campaign to defend Cuba, arguing that African peoples must remember the sacrifices Cuban internationalists made…
  • Dr. M. Reza Behnam
    Three Years of Genocide: How ‘Never Again’ Lost Meaning in Gaza
    07 Oct 2026
    If international law and justice are buried in the rubble of Gaza, the global community will ultimately be digging its own grave.
  • Sami Al-Arian
    Why Hamas believed the status quo was more dangerous than its 7 October gamble
    07 Oct 2026
    Three years into Israel's genocide in Gaza, the consequences of a decision driven by siege, settlement expansion, and assaults on Al-Aqsa are still unfolding.
  • BAR Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Report October 2, 2026
    02 Oct 2026
    In this week’s segment we hear about the right-wing politics of the anti-migrant movement in South Africa, ANC failures, and upcoming elections in that country. But we begin with the first and only…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us