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


  • Musings from the Margins # 3: The Crimes of the White West are Coming Home Again, Or as Malcom X Said, “The Chickens are Coming Home to Roost”
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Musings from the Margins # 3: The Crimes of the White West are Coming Home Again, Or as Malcom X Said, “The Chickens are Coming Home to Roost”
    13 Sep 2023
    Black Agenda Report Editor and Columnist Ajamu Baraka has thoughts on September 11, Haiti, white supremacy in Biden’s Ukraine policy, the criminalization of dissent, and other issues.
  • Dr. Gerald Horne Discusses Events in Africa
    Danny Haiphong and Margaret Kimberley
    Dr. Gerald Horne Discusses Events in Africa
    13 Sep 2023
    Margaret Kimberley and Danny Haiphong spoke with Dr. Gerald Horne about events in Africa including the coup in Niger, U.S. interference in the Sahel region and ECOWAS, African nations assisting U.S.…
  • Cops, Colleges, and Counterinsurgency: An Interview with Dylan Rodriguez
    Dylan Rodríguez , Roberto Sirvent
    Cops, Colleges, and Counterinsurgency: An Interview with Dylan Rodriguez
    13 Sep 2023
    An interview with Dylan Rodriguez.
  • A Justice System That Is Not Fair and Just For Everyone Is Not Fair and Just For Anyone
    Jacqueline Luqman
    A Justice System That Is Not Fair and Just For Everyone Is Not Fair and Just For Anyone
    13 Sep 2023
    A Black Proud Boy gets the Black people treatment in court, Stop Cop City activists are punished for supporting the Atlanta Black community, and prosecutors indict on specious and politically…
  • The Pyramid Scheme That is Racial Capitalism
    Jon Jeter
    The Pyramid Scheme That is Racial Capitalism
    13 Sep 2023
    Black people are both the focus of racist hate and of capitalist predation.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us