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

Fraternal fist-bump between gangstas—Fugget about it… (For Allen Ginsberg, my other favorite ‘Jersey Boy’)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
03 Aug 2022
🖨️ Print Article
Fraternal fist-bump between gangstas—Fugget about it…

Fraternal fist-bump between gangstas—Fugget about it…
(For Allen Ginsberg, my other favorite ‘Jersey Boy’)

I.
apartheid state/south of the border/embassy butcherville—
Truth tellers residing in crosshairs everywhere! So what’s with
twitter tizzy; dither ‘bout a lil’ hand-to-hand contact between
Gangstas?
                                                                   Fugget about it…
A fraternal fist bump?
A routine morning dump?
Or a Munchkin coal lump?
A Yankee slugger’s slump?
                                                                   Fugget about it…
Brotherly bungee jump?
Ol’ Schmo playin’ the chump?
nazi party post-Trump?
Or overwork of Ben Crump?
                                                                   Fugget about it…
II.
Ol’ Schmo said he hadda go
Ol’ Schmo said he hadda go—
He said he was gonna make a Pariah of the prince
He said he was gonna make a Pariah of the prince—
But made death merchants more dollaz an’ cents!

Ol’ Schmo said he hadda go
Ol’ Schmo said he hadda go—
He said he was gonna make the prince into a Pariah
He said he was gonna make the prince into a Pariah—
But, look, whose star-spangled trousers is on fiyah?

Ol’ Schmo said, “Nothing will fundamentally change…”
Ol’ Schmo said, “Nothing will fundamentally change…”
C’mon, now’s, the fraternal fist-bump all that strange??

Ol’ Schmo said, Bloody fists don’t give Gangstas COVID-19
Ol’ Schmo said, Bloody fists don’t give Gangstas COVID-19
‘Cause he, the prince, et.al’s—cut from Capitalist Gangrene!

© 2022. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Former forklift driver/warehouse worker/janitor, Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet; BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can Vote for his work at: GoFundMe  and PayPal .

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


More Stories


  • BAR Book Forum: Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law’s “Prison By Any Other Name”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law’s “Prison By Any Other Name”
    15 Jul 2020
    Increased police technology, increased training and “community policing” tend to actually expand instead of decreasing policing.
  • Barr's New Task Force Is a Blatant Attempt to Target Racial Justice Protesters
    Chip Gibbons
    Barr's New Task Force Is a Blatant Attempt to Target Racial Justice Protesters
    15 Jul 2020
    The attorney general’s theory rests on the premise that there is a set path by which one radicalizes into becoming violent.
  • Storming the Bastille: #BlackLivesMatter, “Allies” and the Fear of Black Revolt
    Kathryn Bedecarré
    Storming the Bastille: #BlackLivesMatter, “Allies” and the Fear of Black Revolt
    15 Jul 2020
    Does the belatedness and ubiquity/banality of allyship echo an anxiety about the enormous restraint that African Americans have exercised?
  • How Black and Brown Workers Are Redefining Strikes in the Digital COVID Age
    Mike Elk
    How Black and Brown Workers Are Redefining Strikes in the Digital COVID Age
    15 Jul 2020
    White labor leaders are failing to understand non-traditional organizing that has developed from viral social media movements. 
  • Desperate Times, Desperate Measures: Dump the Democrats
    Riva Enteen
    Desperate Times, Desperate Measures: Dump the Democrats
    15 Jul 2020
    The Democrats are likely to put forward a Black woman prosecutor to legitimize the mass incarceration plague that Joe Biden helped inflict on Black America.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us