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

Oz-low Piece Process v. Sugar Hill Play-date …
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
07 Aug 2024
🖨️ Print Article
Young child digging through rubble

35 lb question mark,
3 ft exclamation point,
doesn’t cringe at loud sounds or
pee his bed behind nightmares.
Camryn, my three year-old Sugar
Hill neighbor’s an “Old soul.”
I’m honored that he refers to 
me as, “My friend, Raymond.”

Camryn's mommy’s a surgeon, studying
for her boards. His granny’s a history
professor, writing another book. So, I’m
Awarded a Camryn playdate …

Camryn has every truck ever made—
and knows precisely each truck’s function.
He teaches Truck-101to anyone in earshot.

He warns work will not begin before his
bright, yellow hardhat’s jammed over jet
black curls. He buckles his tool belt low and
tight. He’s studied styles and moves of the
Working-class; has them down pat.

Camryn creates tasks for each truck, then
Schools me on how the crane on one truck works.
He doesn’t trust me with the trucks.

Blessed, he believes mommy and granny will
Protect him from scary things; feed and
Hydrate him after he plays hard; read
and sing sleepy-time lullabies, enforcing
Peaceful naps as the Sandman invades …

So, I spare Camryn Fractured Fairytales of
Ambulances twisted into burning, bloody metal
hulks; pieces of cloth, shoes, drivers and assistants.

I spare him Fractured Fairytales from Oz—
Natives driving zig-zag routes ‘round a
Frankenstein scar dissecting their homeland;
Land where his trucks would have different
Color license plates and stop at checkpoints
manned by teenaged thugs eager to cast lead!

Traveling Oz by truck, Camryn might see Caterpillars
crunching toys, houses, olive trees, crushing dreams;
He might see fools flying featherless birds shitting
shrapnel and white fire.

He might hear overloaded donkey carts squealing,
Moaning like Mothers of itty-bitty, bloody bodies
piled on them—bodies later stuffed in ice cream freezers,
to slow their rotting; bodies so shredded, even Camryn's
surgeon mommy—couldn’t put their tiny arms, legs and
Heads back together again …

I spare my friend Fractured Fairytales: crushing trucks
like his.

© 2018. 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.

Palestine
Gaza
Genocide
Children

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


Related Stories

The Cradle News Desk
Israeli soldiers confirm Palestinian civilians murdered 'without restraint' in Gaza 'free for all'
12 November 2025
A new film shows that Israeli troops were encouraged to exterminate Palestinians, including women and children, by their politicians and Jewish
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Use and Abuse of the Genocide Convention
05 November 2025
Genocide crime, as defined by the 
book
Dylan Evans
Book Review: The Sword and the Neck – Reading the al-Aqsa Flood by Yanis Iqbal
05 November 2025
Operation Al Aqsa Flood was immediately cast as unprovoked terrorism.
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
The United States and Israel: The Tale of Two Rogue Settler-Colonial States United by A Commitment to White Supremacy and Barbaric State Violence
29 October 2025
The genocide in Gaza, the threat to Venezuela, and the targeting of Iran are not isolated crises.
x
International League of Peoples' Struggle , International Peoples' Front , People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty
The Right to Resist is the Right of the People! International Organizations Launch the International People’s Tribunal for Palestine
29 October 2025
When established institutions refuse to respond in the face of genocide, the mandate for justice falls to the people.
Steve Salaita
Palestine and the Making of a New New World
29 October 2025
The liberation of Palestine is, above all, a world-building project.
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
Israel’s Perpetual War Machine Demonstrates that Environmental Warfare is a Tool, Not a Consequence of Genocide and Settler Colonialism
15 October 2025
Environmental destruction in Gaza is a calculated military strategy.
Erica Caines , Austin Cole , Tunde Osazua
What's a "Peace Deal" in the War against Colonized People ?
15 October 2025
There will be no peace without justice.
Mohammad al-Ayoubi
No Rule Without Resistance: Gaza’s Post-War Future and the Collapse of Foreign Illusions
15 October 2025
As western powers push technocracy over sovereignty, Palestinian resistance movements warn that there can be no reconstruction without liberati
David Kenner
Arab States Deepened Military Ties with Israel While Denouncing Gaza War, Leak Reveals
15 October 2025
Israeli and Arab military officials have come together for meetings and trainings, facilitated by U.S.

More Stories


  • x
    International League of Peoples' Struggle , International Peoples' Front , People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty
    The Right to Resist is the Right of the People! International Organizations Launch the International People’s Tribunal for Palestine
    29 Oct 2025
    When established institutions refuse to respond in the face of genocide, the mandate for justice falls to the people. This tribunal is a global grassroots movement taking the international law into…
  • Black Alliance For Peace , Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team
    Black Alliance for Peace Stands Firmly with Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution
    29 Oct 2025
    We condemn U.S. lawlessness in Our Americas and call for multinational intervention to guarantee a ‘Zone of Peace’.
  • Arturo Dominguez
    The US Plan To Pillage Latin America Is Becoming Clearer
    29 Oct 2025
    Trump Administration officials have frequently invoked the Monroe Doctrine, explaining the aggression toward Latin America.
  • Steve Salaita
    Palestine and the Making of a New New World
    29 Oct 2025
    The liberation of Palestine is, above all, a world-building project.
  • Rodrigo Durão Coelho
    15 million Venezuelans enlist to defend their country amid U.S. threats, says ex-diplomat Carlos Ron
    29 Oct 2025
    He stresses, however, that the atmosphere is not one of panic despite the possibility of military aggression.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us