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: Jasmine Mitchell‘s “Imagining the Mulatta”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Jasmine Mitchell‘s “Imagining the Mulatta”
    09 Sep 2020
    The mulatta serves as a strategy of containment of Blackness through logics of racial management.
  • Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture
    David A Bell
    Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture
    09 Sep 2020
    The fierce fighter against slavery defeated European armies but died in a cold French prison.
  • End the Injustice of Nonunanimous Juries
    Calvin Duncan
    End the Injustice of Nonunanimous Juries
    09 Sep 2020
    Non-unanimous verdicts allow ten jurors to “simply ignore the views of their fellow panel members of a different race or class.”
  • The Stalinist Trial of Julian Assange
    John Pilger
    The Stalinist Trial of Julian Assange
    09 Sep 2020
    The collusion of powers wants to bury Julian alive in their war on the very principle of freedom of speech and freedom of thought, and democracy.
  • Decades-Old Gang Laws Are Being Used to Target Black Lives Matter Protesters
    Ali Winston
    Decades-Old Gang Laws Are Being Used to Target Black Lives Matter Protesters
    09 Sep 2020
    By using gang laws, authorities can do an end run around First Amendment protections on freedom of association
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us