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.
The author wants us to deepen our analysis of how power moves through the world to constrain Black life, and how queer Black people resist these constraints.
Millions of Americans face eviction in a “completely predictable and entirely preventable” crisis as the CDC’s moratorium is set to expire on New Year’s Eve.
Eighty-three percent of blue-collar temp assignments are staffed by non-white workers in Illinois, a state where non-white workers are just 35 percent of the workforce.
Both capitalist parties, and members of the black misleadership class, intentionally play the game of racial politics in order to obscure and ignore issues of class and poverty.
Biden, et al are planning to take us back to a romanticized Clinton and Obama eras.
