by BAR poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
Put an APB out, forthwith, posthaste on
Dem Nuremberg Negroz, assets in alligator combat boots,
Armani flak jackets, suede suicide vests and Louis Vuitton
Saddlebags packed with C-4, impostors posing as peoples’ servants,
Quit haunting me, Amiriman
by BAR poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
Ahhhh, ahhhh, ahhhh, ahhhhh— Amiri, quit haunting me…
“Get up,” he says, “Go to your growley — Fred Douglass did it,
Wright did it, Sterling did it, Langston did it, Jimmy B and I did it!”
Those who know—know… “Go to your growley, go to your growley!”
Rhythmically repeating his chant, “Go to your growley, go to your growley,
Dahomey Dance, stagger, stumble, go forward faster — it’s a Nike thing —
Go, find the small vial of truth serum and dump it in your expensive Ethiopian
Coffee, or drink it straight, like Red Bull or5-Hour Energy Drink…”
Go to your growley and put an APB out, forthwith, posthaste on
Dem Nuremberg Negroz traveling by Trojan horse, arriving by
Mule, riding bareback and backwards — Skip Gates’
Arresting officer offering free field sobriety tests…
Put an APB out, forthwith, posthaste on
Dem Nuremberg Negroz, assets in alligator combat boots,
Armani flak jackets, suede suicide vests and Louis Vuitton
Saddlebags packed with C-4, impostors posing as peoples’ servants,
Preachers and public intellectuals—serial killers, code-switching from
Shuffling to goose-stepping, war whooping, tomahawk chopping, aiding
And abetting corporate war crimes, crimes against peace and humanity!
Put an APB out, forthwith, posthaste on
Dem Nuremberg Negroz, armed and extremely dangerous, lying
Motionless like crocodiles, or crawling on red, white and blue bellies, like servile
Waiters who took universal, single-payer, healthcare “off the table,” or launching
Themselves on land, them bloodthirsty Black Caucus elements, high as drones,
Them serial killers hangin’ out ‘round the Offal Office, Takeout Tuesdays and
Tying off their arms with rope Shell used for lynching Ken Saro Wiwa — happy-
Dancing every Hellfire Missile striking its target, transforming wedding parties
Into funerals, wives to widows, children to orphans, 52 Tuesday Heartbreaks X 8…
Put an APB out, forthwith, posthaste on
Dem Nuremberg Negroz loitering ‘round the Rouge Garden like laser-eyed frat
Boys, in Rove states of mind, beltin’8 Ball; smokin’ crack through thighbones of
Afghan freedom fighters; rollin’ blunts in singed skin of Somali men, and
Snacking on decapitated, shredded, cluster bombed babies, in minced goat flesh,
White phosphorus-grilled Palestinian teen in tender Pakistani elder Tartare —
And ain’t nothin’ but a party at Unca Jim’s Jihad Joint, special op out Fort Sumter
Servin’ muthafuckas hot wings off Predator Drones, half a world away!
Put an APB out, forthwith, posthaste on
Dem Nuremberg Negroz gnashing plutonium teeth, slurring known-knowns and
Unknown-knowns: killing rag-heads, killing camel-jockeys, killing sand-niggers,
Gooks, chinks, crushing Occupy, plotting coups in Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador
Put an APB out, forthwith, posthaste on
Dem Nuremberg Negroz, agents of General Dynamics, General Electric,
Haliburton and Boeing, charlatans who tolt you Rosa sat
So Martin could stand, so de Wehrmacht could run
Amok fo’ regime change we can believe in, a Northrup-Grummond
Negro Commander-in-Chief in “charge” of Raytheon’s representation of
Dr. King’s dream” of protecting black pus oozing from Mother Africa’s
Womb through humanitarian interventions…
Put an APB out, forthwith, posthaste on
Dem Nuremberg Negroz, night-raid, Cruise Missile, shock and awe shamans,
“Make me do it,” mule shit-smelling minstrels of militarism, playing Goebbels
Games with underwear-shoe bomb plots, killing Black folk softly, with Nobelpeace
PrizeNAACPImageAwards for Warlordin’ — an Iceberg Slimmed down version of
Il Duce— Il Duce on a “Yes we can!” diet…
Put an APB out, forthwith, posthaste on
Dem Nuremberg Negroz, haul they asses, like low-hanging fruit, into The Hague
With Milosevic-Charles Taylor harvests, or into Harlem’s Apollo, where Black
Folk like justice, love shows! Like the Men’s Wearhouse, I guarantee, they’d get
Fair trials: Lynne Stewart, Mumia Abu Jamal, Russell Maroon Shoatz, Leonard Peltier, Mutlu Shakur, Sekou Odinga, Hugo Pinell, Kiilu Nyasha, Anthony Monterio, Alton Maddox, Soffiyah Ellijah, Pam Africa, Asata Shakur, presiding…
Assata Shakur wrote the introduction and this poem for the 1990 book Hauling Up the Morning: writings & art by political prisoners and prisoners of war in the U.S.
They called Assata Shakur a fugitive; we claim her as a compass. Her work and her words will continue to chart the path toward our liberation.
The empire has a new plan for Haiti, a return to military occupation dressed up as humanitarianism. Like past occupations, it will only increase the suffering of Haiti's people.
While Gaza burns, a collaborationist class is being handed the keys to a prison and calling it a state, all in service to western imperialism.
Western nations complicit in occupation and genocide offer a fig leaf of sovereignty by recognizing a Palestinian state that in reality would still be occupied.
