Avotcja’s Love…
“…Your love…means everything to me…”
—Charles Wright, Watts 103rd Street Band
Used to fret, whine, twist worry beads
outta shape. Used to pout like a 6th grader
starting pre-school. Used to burden my
Wife-to-be with questions concealing
statements. And statements concealing
Questions: “I don’t think Avotcja likes me…”
Used to be bothered by unceremoniously
curt, gruff, brusque, businesslike behavior.
“The seasoned Sister’s in a New York state
of mind—she’ll be over it in a New York
Minute…” Asserted my NYC Wife-to-be…
Fast forwarding a few million minutes—I
Love the way Avotcja starts spreadin’ the
Blues-infused news…Slipping, sliding—
smoothly—Spanish to Spanglish to English
and back again—Bouncing it off walls and
elephant ears of satellite dishes
picking up maternal music frequency words…
Love her electric-throned—Super Shero—
defiant/reliant; No quit grit! Out organizing, out
Working, out fighting—Out
Loving our temporarily-abled…tired asses…
Once heard her weaponized words put a pimp
across her knee—spank his ass…Make him ask,
“Mother, may I…get outta the game…get a gig
Driving Ms Daisy? Ms Mary? Ms Matty? Any
Senior sisters needin’ to shop—get to the bank—
See the doctor?!”
Fast forwarding a few million minutes—I
Love hearing “Papi Was a Dancing Man”
of crackling, triumphant, Presto-log love—
Warmth for entering from frost… Warm shower,
Wool blanket, hot apple cider, home-cooked meal
Love
Love making arrows make u-turns
midair
Love making embarrassed bullets drop
to streets in supplication and apology…
And, yes, I’m grateful she calls me her
“Brother from another Mother—” And
has Papi-love left… for sharing with me…
© 2023. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet; BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can Vote for his work at: GoFundMe and PayPal.
Director of the North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights, Ajamu Baraka, joins Spotlight on Press TV to analyze the latest developments in Venezuela, how and why this illegal…
Black Agenda Report Special Issue on Venezuela.
Solidarity with Palestine tests morality, but solidarity with Venezuela tests politics. The recent U.S. intervention demands a radical left moving from moral outrage to a material confrontation with…
“The national independence struggles of the peoples of Our America have simultaneously been anti-imperialist struggles from Tupac Amaru up through our times.”
"STOP the killers!" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
