Reese Piece… | Black Agenda Report

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence

15 Apr 2021

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Reese Piece…

Salute to City of Angels’ son!
He wrote, he wrote, he wrote
And he wrote…
Ramparts, The Progressive, The
Nation, Mother Jones, Dateline
Havana, 48 hills…

Oakland 7 anti-draft defendant
He wrote, he wrote, he wrote
And he wrote…

Untangling silly putty propaganda
of swollen multibillionaire media—
Offering answers to Marvin’s question…

He wrote, he wrote, he wrote
And he wrote…No swank hotel suite stenographer monitoring
coffee, croissant, cigar—eschewing skull/cross-
bone land mine warnings; He wrote in helmet,
face shield, flak jacket—‘hotspots’ of the plane

He wrote, he wrote, he wrote
And he wrote…
of recent rockets and mortar shells; depleted
uranium bombs; blockades; criminal sanctions
While remembering two red, white, blue mush-
room clouds…

He wrote, he wrote, he wrote
And he wrote…
about the blues tinged source: trumpet, gravelly voice;
about cool saxophone states of the union; about Cuban
pianists’ perspectives—sprinkled over stations across
the nation and ceasefires in Jazz corners of the world

He wrote, he wrote, he wrote
And he wrote…
on deadlines timed to host beautiful company—heavy-
weight house guests, festive feasts—Music lingering
like one ripe, Garden of Eden question: who was the
food maven, the feast maker, he or the wife?

He wrote, he wrote, he wrote
And he wrote…
Jazzy press releases, funky features for us; hip
iiner notes for All Hands On Deck—our first CD;
He blew:“UpSurge! is truly radical—it takes
the performers and audiences back to their roots…”

He wrote, he wrote, he wrote
And he wrote…
and in our minds’ mouths we vocalized, like pianists
and bassists singing their solos aloud, “Give us a Reese
piece and Scott-shot so—like him—those who know will
know…”

*Scott-shot refers to photos of friend and photographer Scott Braley.

Jahan Choudhry is Comments Editor for Black Agenda Report. He is an organizer with the Saturday Free School based in Philadelphia, PA.

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