Boy Scouts in Arlington, Virginia in 1953 (Image: Arlington public library)
Scouting
day dreaming, dreaming, anticipating
a Hollywood Bowl where some master
painter splashed stars
all over night’s navy blue canvas…
Wow! Were we in awe? So insignificant
in the grand scheme of the
painting; its sovereign clarity—
its status; its ultimate one-upmanship?
day dreaming, dreaming, anticipating
more navy blue pants, more navy blue shirts,
caps; and gold scarves of fledgling Cub Scouts…
Our yellow bus pulled
into the lower lot among
an armada of other yellow busses
day dreaming, dreaming, anticipating
crisp practice of white handbook pages;
of memorized rules—cherished code of
Conduct—One for all/All for one ways
of being in the world…
Our yellow bus pulled
into the lower lot among
an armada of other yellow busses
day dreaming, dreaming, anticipating
tent talk; talk of knots tied with wider,
with new navy blue crew…
Our yellow bus pulled up and parked
among the armada of yellow busses—
Unloading more blue pants, blue shirts,
caps; more gold scarves… Unloading expresso,
mocha, tan, paper bag brown, cinnamon, caramel cargo…
Before—without warning—awful reign of rocks fell from
Lot above—Fell with wild, weaponized cries:
“GO HOME CHOCOLATE DROPS!!!!”
“GO HOME CHOCOLATE DROPS!!!!”
“GO HOME CHOCOLATE DROPS!!!!”
© 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.
The eyewitness testimonies of Germany’s brutal attempted extermination of the Herero and Namaqua people remind us that genocide is the norm of European “civilization.”
Ajamu Baraka delivered this speech at the opening of the 2024 United National Antiwar Coalition Conference.
The U.S. kept the U.N. Security Council from sending in troops to stop the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
The "transitional council" in Haiti is another part of the plan to maintain the dominance of imperialist forces over the island. This process is driving the nation further into a socioeconomic crisis.
O.J. Simpson's acquittal in one of the most infamous murder trials of the 20th century was celebrated as a symbolic win for the Black community against an oppressive system. However, O.J. was…
