AB | Black Agenda Report

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence

14 Jan 2014

Still the syn-tactical surgeon

With precision pen, atomic tenor,

Suturing my severed tongue

AB

Ho Chi Minh penned in

Prison Poems, the

Poet must also

Know how to lead an attack

Not a god or stamp, you

Are still my father, son and

Holy-ghost, post-Langston,

Sterling poet warrior

Still the syn-tactical surgeon

With precision pen, atomic tenor,

Suturing my severed tongue

Still the armory

Issuing anti-fracking ordinance

For strikes on Mengeles

At Monsanto

Still the arsenal

Supplying smart bombs for

Our war on government-guided

Attack-Negroz like

Da Men of Steele — Shelby and

Michael — Long Dong Silver, AKA,

Thom-Ass Clarence, Ward Connerly,

Colin Powell and dem imperialist Rice wenches…

I searched frantically for you at the end

Of the Apollo’s Sekou Sundiata celebration;

I jumped over a chair, just missing you, at

The Harlem Stage tribute to Abbey Lincoln;

Finally, caught you at the Schomburg’s

Langston Hughes Auditorium, at the

Fidel-Malcolm Meeting book talk—

Forgave you for slipping

On Iceberg Slim, and

Told you, “I LOVE YOU…”

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com.

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