Ruchell Magee Must Be Set Free!
Elder, brother, comrade…Been gone
too long…
Wanted in the Black Community—
Watts writ large!
Elder, brother, comrade…Been gone
too long…
Wanted in the Black Community—
Watts writ large!
If 1619 started it—ebony/ivory—
teenage attraction
Jim Crow’s watch—upped the ante!
Deep South apartheid stench/Emmett
Till terror/pitched battles on blood rivers…
What could the boy be but Black rapist?
Bullwhip warped minds of white men—
What could this be but ‘Master’s’
midnight visits to slave quarters—Prying
apart Black thighs—overruling cries, pleas,
Love?
What could the boy be but Black rapist?
Crackers coveted Choctaw land—
Black soil mattered…
More than visiting terror—or
Another muddy, mutilated body in Mississippi
or other Dixie river. Crackers coveting
Choctaw land put boy in plantation place…
Gifted 8 Angola yrs…Under King Cotton’s rule…
Under horseback-ridin, shotgun-totin, tobacco
spittin gaze… Gifted target embroidered
Jacket— Gifted exile: City of Angels/ruled by devils…
Elder, brother, comrade…Been gone
too long…
Wanted in the Black Community—
Watts writ large!
Elder, brother, comrade…Been gone
too long…
Wanted in the Black Community—
Watts writ large!
His numbers are no longer:
“6-3-4-5-7-8-9”
no longer:
“Beechwood 4-5-7-8-9”
far too long his numbers been:
#A92051 #T115— 83—Caged since
’63— 60 yrs vengeance-driven torture!
Elder, brother, comrade…Been gone
too long…
Wanted in the Black Community—
Watts writ large!
Elder, brother, comrade…Been gone
too long…
Wanted in the Black Community—
Watts writ large!
Visualize him home—sun splashing light comic
book bright colors of L.A. murals!
Visualize him home, holding youth
centers, Senior centers, libraries,
bookstores
Captive. Pulling three-deep lines snaked
‘round crooked corners…
Space, light, air, freedom to stretch out in sensory
overload!
Elder, brother, comrade…Been gone
too long…
Wanted in the Black Community—
Watts writ large!
Elder, brother, comrade…Been gone
too long…
Wanted in the Black Community—
Watts writ large!
No mo’ Golden State gulag/COVID
concentration camp—
No mo’ Octogenarian barrister behind bars
law book-lifting—iron-pumping mind:
No mo’ memoranda, motion, writ and plea
No mo’ heroic, litigious—War of the Flea—
No mo’ symbol of strength/wisdom of tree—
People, Ruchell Magee must be set Free!
Governor, Ruchell Magee must be set Free!
People, Ruchell Magee must be set Free!
© 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.
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