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


  • Black Agenda Radio for Week of November 2, 2020
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of November 2, 2020
    03 Nov 2020
    Police “Reform” = Counterinsurgency
  •  Mumia on 2020 Elections
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Mumia on 2020 Elections
    03 Nov 2020
    The polls were wrong in 2016, and they may be wrong this year, too, said Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, in an essay for Prison Radio.
  • Anti-Queerness in Africa is Complicated
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Anti-Queerness in Africa is Complicated
    03 Nov 2020
    Thirty African countries have laws against homosexuality, but debate still rages over whether homophobia is endemic to Africa or a European import.
  • Anti-Black Racism is Everywhere in the Americas
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Anti-Black Racism is Everywhere in the Americas
    03 Nov 2020
    Anti-Black racism is not limited to the US, said Jomaira Salas, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Rutgers University and author of an article on Black Latina girls.
  •  Police “Reform” = Counterinsurgency
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Police “Reform” = Counterinsurgency
    03 Nov 2020
    Attempts to “reform” the police through body cameras, so-called “community” policing and other such measures “all presume the continued presence of police” in oppressed communities, said Dy
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us