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

12th Man
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
11 Feb 2014
🖨️ Print Article

by Raymond Nat Turner

Where’s The 12th Man—

All 137.6 decibels—

For Mumia and Maroon?

 

12th Man

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

From “Yes, we can” to The 12th Man

The 1%’s calling all the power plays—

Bootlegging, blitzing, sacking our daze…

 

Sunday we sat slurping beer,

Gobbling pizza and buckets

Of chicken like madmen, ‘til

Heartburn and boredom set

In, ‘til The Questions came

Whizzing past like pockets full

Of cherry red challenge flags:

 

Where was The 12th Man

Shrieking, screaming, loud

As an Aircraft carrier’s flight

Deck for Marilyn Buck?

 

Where was The 12th Man

Shouting full-throated,

Loud as Apache and

Blackhawk Helicopters

For Herman Wallace?

 

Where’s The 12th Man—

All 137.6 decibels—

For Mumia and Maroon?

 

Where’s The 12th Man—

Bursting eardrums for

Whistleblowers Manning,

Snowden and Assange?

 

Where’s the quarterback,

The field general, that

Comes up to the line

Barking: ANGOLA

ATTICA #77A4283

CUT-CUT-CUT?

 

Where’s the coach that

Will argue over calls like

Leonard Peltier? Or Hugo

Pinell and Albert Woodfox—

Four decades in bathroom-

Sized, windowless, torture

Chambers, cut off from fresh

Air, sunlight, Vitamin D

22-24 hours a day? Cruel,

Slow deaths, strip sacking

Spirits, bodies and minds of>

Political prisoners & prisoners

Of war who, game faces on

Against water hoses, cattle

prods, German shepherds,

Bullets and buckshot,

Took the field for us all

 

Quadruple, triple, double

Overtime, or sudden death,

This game’s been going

On too long—

Where’s the Terrible

Towels, the Lambeau Leap

Where’s the raucous carrying

On in the Dog Pound, boisterous

Behavior in the Black Hole, where’s

The Wall of Fame, Ring of Honor

Where’s The 12th Man for our

Political prisoners & prisoners of war?

 

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com.

 

Raymond Nat Turner © 2014 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


  • Message to the US Corporate Media: Capitalism is Responsible for the Deaths of Millions of People
    Solomon Comissiong
    Message to the US Corporate Media: Capitalism is Responsible for the Deaths of Millions of People
    04 Mar 2020
    Corporate media snake-oil salesmen/women are doing their best to convince the masses that socialism is the devil itself.
  • The Gift of India and the Violence of the West 
    R. Divya Nair
    The Gift of India and the Violence of the West 
    04 Mar 2020
    Five centuries ago, Europeans set about subjugating the non-“white” peoples of the world, and they are still at it.
  • The Difference Between Yams and Sweet Potatoes Is Structural Racism 
    Margaret Eby 
    The Difference Between Yams and Sweet Potatoes Is Structural Racism 
    04 Mar 2020
    The confusion goes all the way back to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. “Most American supermarkets are selling you sweet potatoes, not yams.”
  • Black Agenda Radio for Week of March 2, 2020
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of March 2, 2020
    02 Mar 2020
    If the Left Doesn’t Critique Endless War, Who Will?
  • Black Scholar Praises Heroes and Indicts “Scoundrels” of McCarthy Era
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Black Scholar Praises Heroes and Indicts “Scoundrels” of McCarthy Era
    02 Mar 2020
    The peace activists that were persecuted in the McCarthy era were not fighting just for the absence of war, but were “anti-imperialist, anti-colonial, anti-capitalist and demanded an end to United
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us