I am Charlie…
by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner
Tomfoolery, swooning of
Unca Jim, his CBC Gap
Band is embarrassing—
Maybe the Commander
Should don his Hannibal
Lecter mask and someone
Should warn us, “Warm up
With belly laughs” for
Serial killer standup
Before billionaire, bought,
Bossed, ‘live’ audience—
He kills, but then again,
He bombs…
Yeah, he bombs in Teddy
Roosevelt-style Tourettes—
Schizophrenic as two
Hemispheres of a French
Brain split by the Seine
Champagne smooth, like
“Liberte, egalite, fraternite,”
Josephine Baker’s Croix de
Guerre, Rosette de la Resistance,
Jimmy Baldwin’s La Legion D’
Honor… Paris Commune or Battle
Of Algiers strangling Haiti with debt
Slaughtering Vietnamese,
Torturing Tunisians, murdering
Moroccans and Algerians? Yeah,
We know where West African bodies
Are buried, beside Cote d’ Ivoire and
Mali! Smooth, nuanced pomposity not
Harsh, guttural like venom the funny
Mustached muthafucka spewed, not stiff
Like looters with attitude, re-
Branding looting the British Museum
But on another night, nobodies
Like me, stood frozen-footed
Two hours on 20 degree
Sidewalks, waiting for
Town Hall NYC opening for the
Charlie Haden Memorial, where
Ernie went Watts, “Burn, baby
Burn!” Setting Town Hall on fire!
Ravi was a Coltrane transporting
Ancestral sounds in un-fracked
Tears, Robesonian-deep as Henry
Butler’s “Deep River,” sonic waves
Reigning with 99%ers like me…
A night of cookers, transparent, true
Independence like Jack DeJohnette’s
Drum solo; love like Ernie, Ravi, Joshua
Redman runs, Gerri Allen, Kenny Barron,
Alan Broadbent arpeggios; more community,
Crazy glue unity in Liberation Music
Orchestra, Haden Triplet harmonies,
Than 1%-patriot act-Capitalist Hill-Wall
Street benefit concerts will ever possess!
A night of cookers legislating, medicating,
Operating, educating, adjusting, grooming,
Banking— best US’s offering the Americas,
The world— 99%ers like me, who are Charlie
Haden…
Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at Raymond (at) upsurgejazz.com
Raymond Nat Turner © 2105 All Rights Reserved
The United States has escalated its proxy war in Syria with the help of jihadist allies and continues destabilizing the entire West Asia region.
Proposed legislation uses the politicized weaponization of governmental power to stymie free speech and actively stamp out pro-Palestinian voices.
This week, we discuss the military conflict in Sudan between warring factions. First, we discuss the International Criminal Court, which recently issued arrest warrants for Israeli officials.
Ali Abunimah joins us from Chicago to discuss the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas…
Abayomi Azikiwe provides analysis on the military conflict in the Sudan which has so far been unresolved despite attempts at peace making.
