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


  • Community Control of the Police: An Idea Whose Time Came and Never Left
    Howie Hawkins
    Community Control of the Police: An Idea Whose Time Came and Never Left
    26 Feb 2020
    This policy paper makes the case for reviving the Black Panther Party program for community control of the police.
  • Kobe Bryant Touched Many Lives, But Celebrity Worship is an Opiate
    Dante James
    Kobe Bryant Touched Many Lives, But Celebrity Worship is an Opiate
    26 Feb 2020
    Is big media really concerned for Kobe’s family, friends and community, or with Bryant’s corporate value as a black celebrity, an apolitical athlete and a commodity?
  • Letters from Our Readers 
    Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers 
    26 Feb 2020
    This week readers discussed the Bloomberg campaign.
  • BAR Book Forum: S.N. Nyeck’s “Routledge Handbook of Queer African Studies”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: S.N. Nyeck’s “Routledge Handbook of Queer African Studies”
    26 Feb 2020
    The author provides a “queer” perspective on African identities, politics and economies.
  • BAR Book Forum: Marc Ross’s “Slavery in the North”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Marc Ross’s “Slavery in the North”
    26 Feb 2020
    The roots of racial differences have to do with the past treatment of enslaved people in the North as well as the South.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us