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
  • omnibus

Scouting
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
04 Jan 2023
🖨️ Print Article
Scouting
Boy Scouts in Arlington, Virginia in 1953 (Image: Arlington public library)

Scouting

day dreaming, dreaming, anticipating

a Hollywood Bowl where some master

painter splashed stars

all over night’s navy blue canvas…

Wow! Were we in awe? So insignificant

in the grand scheme of the

painting; its sovereign clarity—

its status; its ultimate one-upmanship?

day dreaming, dreaming, anticipating

more navy blue pants, more navy blue shirts,

caps; and gold scarves of fledgling Cub Scouts…

Our yellow bus pulled

into the lower lot among

an armada of other yellow busses

day dreaming, dreaming, anticipating

crisp practice of white handbook pages;

of memorized rules—cherished code of

Conduct—One for all/All for one ways

of being in the world…

Our yellow bus pulled

into the lower lot among

an armada of other yellow busses

day dreaming, dreaming, anticipating

tent talk; talk of knots tied with wider,

with new navy blue crew…

Our yellow bus pulled up and parked

among the armada of yellow busses—

Unloading more blue pants, blue shirts,

caps; more gold scarves… Unloading expresso,

mocha, tan, paper bag brown, cinnamon, caramel cargo…

Before—without warning—awful reign of rocks fell from

Lot above—Fell with wild, weaponized cries:

“GO HOME CHOCOLATE DROPS!!!!”

“GO HOME CHOCOLATE DROPS!!!!”

“GO HOME CHOCOLATE DROPS!!!!”



© 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.

Anti-Black Racism
Los Angeles

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


More Stories


  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    MEMOIR: The Making of a Rebel, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, 1980
    04 Jun 2025
    “We cannot write in foreign languages unspoken and unknown by peasants and workers in our communities and pretend that we are writing for…those peasants and workers.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    The Struggle for a Somali Nation
    04 Jun 2025
    Despite shared language, culture, and religion, Somalis still struggle to become a cohesive nation.
  • Jon Jeter
    Pizza Goeth Before a Fall? Changes in Americans’ Eating Habits Foretell a Deep Recession
    04 Jun 2025
    Wages can't keep up with prices, debt is crushing workers, and racial capitalism keeps us divided over shrinking slices. This isn't just inflation—it's collapse.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Rising Temperatures and the Rising Need for a Black Radical Lens in the Climate Change Discourse.
    04 Jun 2025
    Liberal climate movements keep bargaining with capitalism, but the Black Radical Tradition knows survival requires its destruction. Environmentalism must adopt principles of abolition and anti-…
  • Aby L. Sène
    Drones, Elephants and Imperialist Interests in Africa
    04 Jun 2025
    Conservation in Africa has long been a smokescreen for imperial power. Veiled behind the cause of environmentalism and stopping poachers, western governments, intelligence agencies, and billionaire-…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us