Crowd at a Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party meeting in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, July 1964, Herbert Randall Freedom Summer Photographs, USM
“Poetry is always dissident.”
—Octavio Paz
It was muted Miles when we
Woke Saturday mornings.
When we rose from slumber
to scents of sausage, potatoes,
bacon, eggs and coffee …
It was muted Miles when we
Woke to fragrances wafting
from Sunbeam waffle iron.
Maybe manicures and pedicures, post-
breakfast? Maybe, on his way to
Work, the barber would pick us up for
close-cropped hair and nourishing adult
ear worms?
Maybe I’d be pitching? Brother
Steve catching—or gobbling
up ground balls at second base?
My Mother could organize all that!
Then rip apron off, gavel meetings
to order. Pull together picket lines;
Run California assembly and senate
campaigns—Or, settle long, long-
simmering disputes. She came equipped.
No cape. No “S” on her chest. No
unusual way of getting around. She
was just Mom …
Crazy Mom. Invited me to attend
a meeting with her. My response:
“I don’t wanna go to your political meetings—
I just wanna play Little League Baseball!”
Her muted Miles reply… “Baby, everything’s
Political… How do you think your park got
there? How do you think your coach got hired?
Everything’s political, baby.”
© 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.
Maryland has been enforcing harsher criminal laws, using the claim of a crime wave that does not exist. This crackdown funnels Black children into an incredibly draconian legal system. Now, there is…
The rise of the data and technology industry plays a key role in the rapid deterioration of social and economic conditions in the U.S.
The contrast between the reception of Volodymyr Zelensky and Benjamin Netanyahu upon their visits to the White House was stark. This treatment seems to signal a shift in the Trump administration's…
It comes as no surprise that elements among the left continue to do the bidding of Western imperialist forces. The recent statement from the Ukrainian Solidarity Network exemplifies the left's…
In this week’s segment, we learn about the continuing violence against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, despite the ceasefire. But first, we discuss the NYPD gang database, which ensnares…
