by Raymond Nat Turner
“In our marching shoes, yes, we can
Discover trails less traveled
Connecting us with sage spirits
Sampling James Brown with John
Brown”
If The Shoe Fits...
by Raymond Nat Turner
Shoe leather was once
Voting's egg, blood, its sperm...
Shoe's on the other foot, now
So, to vote, or not to vote
Is not the question---the
Commander even chided and
Derided us: Swap "bedroom
Slippers" for "marching shoes"
In our marching shoes, yes, we can
Click our heels like children
Catching burnt orange and ebony
Butterflies filled with freedom to fly
In our marching shoes, yes, we can
Conjure comets and name them
"Rebellion," "Underground," "Utopian,"
"Civil," "Survival" and celestial bodies coming...
In our marching shoes, yes, we can
Scale the Shangri-la where
Seventy-five year olds march like
Twenty-five year olds and
Twenty-five year olds orate like
Seventy-five year olds,shoulder
To shoulder striking, sitting-in,
Picketing, teaching and taking
Care of one another on filaments
Of shoestring budgets...
In our marching shoes, yes, we can
Discover trails less traveled
Connecting us with sage spirits
Sampling James Brown with John
Brown, disturbing the universe, questioning
Everything about a corrupt, rotten pyramid
Scheme stitched together with tear gas,
Bullets, bombs and LIES...
In our marching shoes, blisters and all,
We're the ones we've been waiting for---
Cast Prada, Nike, Reebok ballots
At bought and bossed footmen!
Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at Raymond (at) upsurgejazz.com.
(c) 2012 All rights Reserved
The International Criminal Court finally indicted Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, but this action is merely performative. If arrest warrants do not include war criminals like Joe…
Manning Marable reminds us that US fascism is institutional and normalized. The parallels of his 1981 essay with the present are obvious – US fascism remains ascendant.
The Washington Post’s latest anti-Eritrea propaganda demonizes Eritrean immigrants defending themselves in the West.
Annual climate gathering reflects divisions between the industrialized states and the Global South.
Glen Ford wrote many powerful essays, but his unflinching analysis of the history of the holiday we call Thanksgiving endures 20 years after he wrote it.
