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

be like Mike
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
03 Jun 2015
🖨️ Print Article

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

…be like Mike…

by Raymond Nat Turner

(For Michael Lange, teacher, mentor, friend, peer)

The quizzical look, the small
Gesture you taught me, made
All the difference in the world;
Made me, made John Brown’s Truth
Better, like the “Ballot or The Bullet”
Made the Million Worker March fund-
Raiser during ’04’s election charade
Better; like “What to the Slave Is the 
Fourth of July” made our Frederick
Douglass Day /Alternative 4th of July
Celebrations better, for these reasons &
MORE:
I wanna be like Mike—
Practicing spiritual Aikido,
Becoming buff lifting others
Up, bodybuilding, building big
Big, warm, welcoming tents on
Towering plateaus of possitivity…

I wanna be like Mike—
Dream weaver spinning dramaturgical
Straw into gold, thespian talent into
Horace Silver/Wayne Shorter stage
Genius, super nova shining brightly
Between two Saturn-size shadows

I wanna be like Mike—
Times Square, off-Broadway,
Handling Town Biz, giving the Brit
Royal Shakespeare alum as good as
She gave, elongating our spines

I wanna be like Mike—
Black-Black, double Black,
Triple Black to the 3rd power,
Quoting Malcolm forwards,
Backwards, sidearm, overhand,
33, 45, 78, but not stuck like a 
Hissing, popping needle in worn
60s grooves, with feats from 
Yesteryear, repeating the
First three words of “Misty…”

Someday, not today,
I wanna be like Mike—
Great performance, fooling fans
Like me, an Ali ‘comeback’ V.
Holmes, I believed you’d upstage
Death, steal his scene, use it for
Redemption, use it to teach us to not
Fear, sanitize or gloss over your great
Antagonist with sticky, sweet, ‘transitions,’
‘Crossovers,’ like famous lines of a lion
In classic script; none of us, your adoring fans,
Really know where you go after this show,
All we really know is that you are answering
Our curtain call, bowing, basking, basking, 
Bowing, in blinding light of tear refracted LOVE,
Solemn standing ovations, sustained applause…

Raymond Nat Turner © 2015 All Rights Reserved

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • Jacqueline Luqman
    Shortcomings and Benefits Of The UN Resolution On Transatlantic Trafficking
    15 Apr 2026
    The UN has finally called the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity. But the resolution is not reparatory justice, and the nations that voted no or abstained show themselves to…
  • Sol Elias
    Death By Black Excellence
    15 Apr 2026
    Misogynoir, a term meant to name the specific violence against poor and working-class Black women is now being used as a shield for political elites.
  • Petros Bein
    Internal Colonialism and the Reproduction of Capital
    15 Apr 2026
    The United States operates as an internal colonial system. Black communities are treated like colonized territories, and the white working class is used as a tool to enforce that control.
  • Resumen English
    All with Cuba: Stand Against the Threat of Imperialist Aggression in April
    15 Apr 2026
    Condemnation of the U.S. blockade against Cuba must be translated into acts of solidarity to defend the nation that has done so much for the world.
  • x
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio April 10, 2026
    10 Apr 2026
    In this week’s segment we hear about Cuba, the challenges of Caribbean unity, and resistance to U.S. efforts to destroy the revolution. But we begin with Iran and discuss how its defense capabilities…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us