The Supremes
Mary was mysterious,
but the best dancer
Diana, the magnetic,
cooing romancer—
But, here’s a secret I know:
cats like me dug Miss Flo—
And the 4th Supreme’s ‘fro!
The 4th Supreme came
Singing tones ‘tween
Douglass and Carmen McRae—
Malcolm X and Lady Day
The 4th Supreme came
Singing “Stop In The Name Of Love!”
by way of Brandeis/Bombing-ham—
hitting Dynamite Hill high notes
The 4th Supreme came
Singing “Reflections”
in silver bracelets, on a
Newsweek cover captioned:
“Red, Black and Wanted!”
Hoover hated her harmonies with millions…
But I heard, “Set me free, why don’t you, babe?”
Rocking me to “ …Try Something New:”
Dialectics…
The 4th Supreme came
Singing, “I Hear A Symphony—”
“No Matter What Sign You Are,”
in ’08—but I
forgive her and comrades
and friends for singing flat
Madison Avenue smash hits: “Yes,
we can and bottle Jim Jones Juice;”
“regime Change you can believe in—”
delivering “Nothing But Heartaches” to
Honduras, Libya, Syria, Mother Africa…
© 2018. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
Raymond Nat Turner, our poet in residence, is an accomplished performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.
As international eyes stay locked on Gaza, Tel Aviv is executing its most aggressive campaign of ethnic cleansing and land theft in the occupied West Bank since 1948.
Unilateral coercive measures, sanctions, are weapons of mass suffering. This new international day marks a global rejection of the West’s economic warfare against sovereign nations.
The so-called "peace agreement" between Rwanda and Congo prioritizes U.S. access to mineral riches. The violence carried out against thousands of civilians continues.
Trump’s accelerated fascism is met with the silence of a compromised U.S. "left." Its institutions, tethered to capitalism and the Democratic Party, reveal they are part of the machine they claim to…
Western media celebrate the terrorist they supported as Syria's savior. Syria’s new U.S.-backed rulers have erased anti-colonial history, enacted neo-liberal policies, and welcomed Israeli occupation…
