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

Saturday Mornings
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
29 Mar 2023
🖨️ Print Article
Saturday Mornings
Caffie Greene

                                                                                                                    Saturday Mornings                                                                                                  

                                                                                                             “Poetry is always dissident.”

                                                                                                                      —Octavio Paz

 

There was muted Miles when we

Woke Saturday mornings—

when we rose from slumber

to scents of sausage, potatoes,

bacon, eggs, coffee.

There was muted Miles when we

Woke to waffle scents wafting

from the Sunbeam waffle iron.

Maybe manicures and pedicures

post-breakfast? Maybe the barber

would pick us up on his way to

work for close-cropped hair and

nourishing adult ear worms?

Maybe I’d be pitching? Brother

Steve catching—or vacuuming

shots up from second base?

My Mother could organize

All that— rip off apron and gavel

meetings to order; pull picket lines

together; run California campaigns

for assembly and senatorial seats—

Or, settle long-simmering disputes…

No cape. No “S” on her chest. No

unusual way of getting around. She

was just Mom.

Crazy Mom inviting me to attend

some meeting with her. My reply:

“I don’t wanna go to your political meetings

I just wanna play Little League Baseball!”

Her muted Miles response, “Everything is

Political…

How do you think your park got there?

How do you think your coach got hired?”

© 2023. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

 

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.

Los Angeles
Black Liberation Movement

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


Related Stories

Michael Smith
Malcolm X’s Daughters Sue NYPD, FBI About Their Role in His Assassination
14 January 2026
A top-notch legal team is delving into how the FBI and their local police partners collaborated in both the assassination of Malcolm X and Chic
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
LETTER: To My People, Assata Shakur, 1973
01 October 2025
“There is and always will be, until every Black man, woman, and child is free, a Black Liberation Army.”
Black Alliance For Peace
In Honor and Memory of Assata Shakur
01 October 2025
They called Assata Shakur a fugitive; we claim her as a compass.
Adam Mahoney
From Watts to D.C.: How 500 Black Neighborhoods Vanished in 45 Years
02 July 2025
America’s gentrified neighborhoods have lost 500,000 Black people, while gaining residents of every other race, a study finds.
Lexis-Olivier Ray
Black People Make Up 75% Of All Weed Arrests At LAX, Data Shows
16 April 2025
Roughly a third of the people who were arrested by LAPD in the city of Los Angeles for cannabis-related offenses since 2020 were arrested in We
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
The fire this time … (as Amiri tolt me)
29 January 2025
“Scratch a lie—find a thief !”
Sekou Odinga
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Sekou Odinga Has Joined the Ancestors But the Spirit of the Black Liberation Army And African Resistance Lives On!
17 January 2024
A commemoration of the life of comrade Sekou Odinga, a lifelong New African revolutionary, former political prisoner, and unstoppable force in
Ralph Poynter delivered a solidarity message from Lynne Stewart
Lallan Schoenstein
Ralph Poynter Used His Strong Voice and Stout Heart to Fight for Justice
10 January 2024
Ralph Poynter was a pioneer in the fight against white supremacy, oppression, and injustice around the world.
The State's Constant Attack on Black Liberation
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The State's Constant Attack on Black Liberation
12 July 2023
Indictments, disruptions, arrests, defamation, incarceration and even assassination are the weapons used to discredit Black people who act
Mourning Mutulu Shakur and the Black Radical Tradition that Modernized America
Jon Jeter
Mourning Mutulu Shakur and the Black Radical Tradition that Modernized America
12 July 2023
The late Mutulu Shakur and other Black radicals were responsible for improving the lives of millions of people in the U.S.

More Stories


  • Beware “Domestication” of Protest
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Beware “Domestication” of Protest
    15 Jun 2020
    Opponents of transformational change are seeking to “domesticate” the protest movement with bland calls for “justice” for George Floyd, who is dead and beyond justice, said Ajamu Barak
  • Police Must Answer to the Community
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Police Must Answer to the Community
    15 Jun 2020
    The demand for community control of police ushers in a new stage of struggle, in which “young people are imagining a world where these tremendous institutions of imperialism and the police state ar
  • Time to Sharpen Our Weapons and Wits
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    Time to Sharpen Our Weapons and Wits
    11 Jun 2020
    Having not yet won real power over the police, this is no time for a lull or a truce -- it’s time to sharpen our political instruments and deepen the mass movement’s social penetration.
  • Freedom Rider: Rebellion, Confusion, Scoundrels and Kente Cloth
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Rebellion, Confusion, Scoundrels and Kente Cloth
    10 Jun 2020
    Black rebellion brings insecurity to those in power, as editors, mayors and even long dead criminals are being called to account.
  • A Tale of Two Protests: Why the U.S. Ruling Class Loves Hong Kong Protests But Hates the Minneapolis-Led Rebellion
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    A Tale of Two Protests: Why the U.S. Ruling Class Loves Hong Kong Protests But Hates the Minneapolis-Led Rebellion
    10 Jun 2020
    The protests in Hong Kong are led by an assortment of US-backed proxies who have separation from China as their principle goal.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us