this is what solidarity looks like...
I’m a Seoul Man, da-da-da—dat-da-da-da
I’m a Seoul Man, da-da-da—dat-da-da-da
I’m also a Pyongyang, Managua, Manilla,
Teheran Man, too—As opposed to despot
As I am to coup!
When they go high—
Pole dancing palace and peacock throne—
I go low— on my own: grassroots, salt of the earth…
Lookin’ here and there, searchin’ everywhere
for bleach, Windex, Pine Sol scents—
janitors scrubbing toilets, mopping floors;
Lookin’ for blue plumes of forklift fumes—
pallets groaning in harmony with lunch
bucket language of warehouse workers;
Lookin’ for oily mist, machines birthing
stainless steel parts on shop floors;
Listenin’ for punch presses pounding parts
out for machine tools;
Listenin’ for squealing carts of library workers;
Listenin’ for intercoms ordering nurses to stations,
bells releasing teachers to lunch
Lookin’ to stand shoulder to shoulder
with—Workers of the World
I’m a Seoul Man, da-da-da—dat-da-da-da
I’m a Seoul Man, da-da-da—dat-da-da-da
I’m also a Pyongyang, Managua, Manilla,
Teheran Man, too—As opposed to despot
As I am to coup!
When they go high—
Pole dancing palace and peacock throne—
I go low— on my own: grassroots, salt of the earth…
Lookin’ here and there, searchin’ everywhere
Listenin’ for stiffening spine, rattling chain
leaping from guitars and marching to drums;
Lookin’ for ruby banners and fiery pens;
Lookin’ for actors; not dupes and dopes
dangling on dicks of dictators, kleptocrats,
torturers, Czars—like Negroz and liberals
dangled from The Drone Ranger…
© 2019. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
© 2019. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.,br/> Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished poet and performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.
Black citizenship was non-existent for the first 200 years that enslaved and free people were present in what became the United States. Even long-standing legal victories are tenuous, and now…
“Haitian refugees and political exiles find themselves being refused the hospitality granted others.”
The U.S.-brokered 'peace deal' between Rwanda and the DRC whitewashes Rwanda’s occupation and M23 militia crimes.
Zohran Mamdani’s Harlem socialist vision won NYC’s primary but lost Black voters to scandal-plagued Cuomo by 20 points, exposing the left’s racial blind spot even as Wall Street prepares to spend…
Trump’s ‘peace deal’ between Rwanda and the DRC is a corporate resource grab disguised as diplomacy, rewarding Rwandan war crimes while U.S. investors stake claims to Congo’s coltan mines. This…
