Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

For my Niece (and Me)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
18 Jan 2023
🖨️ Print Article
For my Niece (and Me)

                                                                                                      For my Niece  

                                                                                                        (and Me )

                                                                                          “If ever I would leave you…

                                                                                          it wouldn’t be in Summer…”

                                                                                                 —Frederick Loewe

 

An invisible boxer’s blow

on the chin… Everything’s

fuzzy…

Everything’s a blue blur…

Can it ever be the same?

Velvet-gloved gut punch—

first surreal breath inhaled

by burglarized lungs. First breath

Without the one who pushed,

cursed, labored you into the mix—

jumped you in the game…

First surreal second

minute/hour

day/week

month/year

First surreal breath

inhaled

Without the one who pushed,

cursed, labored you into the mix—

jumped you in the game

Weeping…spending tears wisely—

you wish sweet, long Goodnight…

Grieving’s your puzzle; your prayer

strengthening memories pregnant with

Pain—And blurred by joy…

After the soprano hits tear notes; After

the last fiery phrase preached fades

After the quietest ride through the ‘hood

After uttering of “Ashes to ashes…”

After the flowers fade, wilt, brown; And

After the women go back to their shows and

hair— And the men back to boxing, basketball

and Church of the NFL

A song remains…

Let it lullaby you sleep—loop loving dreams

in living color;

Let it moan on its own—spirit swollen within;

Or, just

Let it sit silently in your throat and dissolve…

…like a honeyed, healing cough drop into:

“Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child

Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child

Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child—

A long ways from home…”

© 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.

Grief

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • Barr's New Task Force Is a Blatant Attempt to Target Racial Justice Protesters
    Chip Gibbons
    Barr's New Task Force Is a Blatant Attempt to Target Racial Justice Protesters
    15 Jul 2020
    The attorney general’s theory rests on the premise that there is a set path by which one radicalizes into becoming violent.
  • Storming the Bastille: #BlackLivesMatter, “Allies” and the Fear of Black Revolt
    Kathryn Bedecarré
    Storming the Bastille: #BlackLivesMatter, “Allies” and the Fear of Black Revolt
    15 Jul 2020
    Does the belatedness and ubiquity/banality of allyship echo an anxiety about the enormous restraint that African Americans have exercised?
  • How Black and Brown Workers Are Redefining Strikes in the Digital COVID Age
    Mike Elk
    How Black and Brown Workers Are Redefining Strikes in the Digital COVID Age
    15 Jul 2020
    White labor leaders are failing to understand non-traditional organizing that has developed from viral social media movements. 
  • Desperate Times, Desperate Measures: Dump the Democrats
    Riva Enteen
    Desperate Times, Desperate Measures: Dump the Democrats
    15 Jul 2020
    The Democrats are likely to put forward a Black woman prosecutor to legitimize the mass incarceration plague that Joe Biden helped inflict on Black America.
  • Ajamju Baraka on Race, Class and Protest in the United States
    Look Left Staff
    Ajamju Baraka on Race, Class and Protest in the United States
    15 Jul 2020
    Black Alliance for Peace national organizer Ajamu Baraka urged vigilance against US “attempts to control the narrative” of the Black Lives Matter movement.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us