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


  • Letters from Our Readers
    BAR Comments Editor Jahan Choudhry
    Letters from Our Readers
    10 Dec 2020
    This week the role of US elites in controlling resistance by Ugandans and Black Americans were on your minds.
  • BAR Book Forum: Shiloh Krupar’s “Hot Spotter’s Report”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Shiloh Krupar’s “Hot Spotter’s Report”
    10 Dec 2020
    The U.S. military claims it is “green,” but what the Pentagon is really trying to prove is the planetary sustainability of war.
  • BAR Book Forum: B. Brian Foster’s “I Don’t Like the Blues”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: B. Brian Foster’s “I Don’t Like the Blues”
    10 Dec 2020
    What happens if we really pay attention to what black folks in the rural South are saying and doing in their everyday lives?
  • Lynchings By Law
    Aaron Greene
    Lynchings By Law
    10 Dec 2020
    The Trump administration plans to execute five people before there is a change of power. “The death penalty is the ultimate human rights violation.”
  • Secret Amazon Reports Expose the Company’s Surveillance of Labor and Environmental Groups
    Lauren Kaori Gurley
    Secret Amazon Reports Expose the Company’s Surveillance of Labor and Environmental Groups
    10 Dec 2020
    Dozens of leaked documents from Amazon reveal the company’s use of Pinkerton operatives to spy on warehouse workers, labor unions and social movements.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us