by Raymond Nat Turner
Where’s The 12th Man—
All 137.6 decibels—
For Mumia and Maroon?
12th Man
by Raymond Nat Turner
From “Yes, we can” to The 12th Man
The 1%’s calling all the power plays—
Bootlegging, blitzing, sacking our daze…
Sunday we sat slurping beer,
Gobbling pizza and buckets
Of chicken like madmen, ‘til
Heartburn and boredom set
In, ‘til The Questions came
Whizzing past like pockets full
Of cherry red challenge flags:
Where was The 12th Man
Shrieking, screaming, loud
As an Aircraft carrier’s flight
Deck for Marilyn Buck?
Where was The 12th Man
Shouting full-throated,
Loud as Apache and
Blackhawk Helicopters
For Herman Wallace?
Where’s The 12th Man—
All 137.6 decibels—
For Mumia and Maroon?
Where’s The 12th Man—
Bursting eardrums for
Whistleblowers Manning,
Snowden and Assange?
Where’s the quarterback,
The field general, that
Comes up to the line
Barking: ANGOLA
ATTICA #77A4283
CUT-CUT-CUT?
Where’s the coach that
Will argue over calls like
Leonard Peltier? Or Hugo
Pinell and Albert Woodfox—
Four decades in bathroom-
Sized, windowless, torture
Chambers, cut off from fresh
Air, sunlight, Vitamin D
22-24 hours a day? Cruel,
Slow deaths, strip sacking
Spirits, bodies and minds of>
Political prisoners & prisoners
Of war who, game faces on
Against water hoses, cattle
prods, German shepherds,
Bullets and buckshot,
Took the field for us all
Quadruple, triple, double
Overtime, or sudden death,
This game’s been going
On too long—
Where’s the Terrible
Towels, the Lambeau Leap
Where’s the raucous carrying
On in the Dog Pound, boisterous
Behavior in the Black Hole, where’s
The Wall of Fame, Ring of Honor
Where’s The 12th Man for our
Political prisoners & prisoners of war?
>
Kwesi Pratt Jr. is General Secretary of the Socialist Movement of Ghana.
The SAVE Act would require proof of U.S. citizenship to be presented in person in order to register to vote in this country and would disenfranchise millions of people who are currently able to vote…
Russia finally makes good on promises to help Cuba, but its level of commitment is unclear. The left are clearly immobilized, even as Iran demonstrates how to fight back.
“We are not freeing ourselves from centuries of imperialism and colonialism only to be maimed and destroyed by nuclear weapons.”
Rwanda’s 30-year Assault on the Democratic Republic of Congo, a new 80-page title from Baraka Books, gets straight to the essentials.
