Meet me at Mary’s Place…

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence

10 Mar 2021

“…he said if you can enjoy
A real nice affair
(Over at Mary's place—oh)
Then you'll make it
Your business to be right there…
(Over at Mary's place— oh)”
—Sam Cooke

All her friends were brilliant.
Brilliant bakers, bus drivers,
plumbers, poets, professors,
lawyers, filmmakers, activists,
organizers, students, writers,
guitarists gathered ‘round the
Campfire in her living room;
Where she’d wrestled Rumi
and sucked pomegranate
juice from every nano second

All her friends were brilliant.
Brilliant Native Americans,
Armenians, Mexicans, Ethiopians,
Turks, Iranians, African-Americans,
Indians, Filipinos, Japanese and Jews
gathered ‘round the
Campfire in her living room:
roasting marshmallows of ‘race;’
herding truth; grappling with and
wrestling racism to a mauling draw

All her brilliant friends showed up at
Mary’s Place* minus psychic body armor;
sans anti-‘white’ supremacy shields and
swords—And begging the question(s):
“When did Irish and Italian become
‘white?” “When did Jews become ‘white;’
when might Mexicans become ‘white?’”

They gathered ‘round the
Campfire in her living room
alerted by the clanging, jangling triangle—
Her grub: fierce, uncured love! They washed it
down with cowboy coffee and shots of brandied
Resistance; before filling their canteens from her
spring of Solidarity…

They gathered ‘round the
Campfire in her living room—
Devout do-it-yourself sorcerer who gave less than a
“flying fuck” ‘bout blind haters disguised as ‘experts’

They gathered ‘round the
Campfire in her living room—
An organizer’s organizer—so systematized—
so organized! Clipboards for writers without
hard surfaces; magic second and third calls
Transforming chip/dip/cheese food failures
Into internationalist horn of plenty feasts.
Her mystical signup sheets and lists made
many hands, made setup, made breakdown,
made cleanup magic ritual/spirit chatter/fun!

They gathered ‘round the
Campfire in her living room—
telling torturous tales corporations and
nonprofit junior partners, at imaginary
Tables, pay premium lip service to…

*My beloved teacher, the late Mary H. Webb, legendary Berkeley City College Writing Instructor.

BAR’s poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished performing artist. You can find much more of his work at https://www.youtube.com/user/zigilow

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