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

…solidarity sounds like…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
10 Apr 2019
movement
this is what solidarity looks like...

I’m a Seoul Man, da-da-da—dat-da-da-da
I’m a Seoul Man, da-da-da—dat-da-da-da
I’m also a Pyongyang, Managua, Manilla,
Teheran Man, too—As opposed to despot
As I am to coup!
When they go high—
Pole dancing palace and peacock throne—
I go low— on my own: grassroots, salt of the earth…
Lookin’ here and there, searchin’ everywhere
for bleach, Windex, Pine Sol scents—
janitors scrubbing toilets, mopping floors;
Lookin’ for blue plumes of forklift fumes—
pallets groaning in harmony with lunch
bucket language of warehouse workers;
Lookin’ for oily mist, machines birthing
stainless steel parts on shop floors;
Listenin’ for punch presses pounding parts
out for machine tools;
Listenin’ for squealing carts of library workers;
Listenin’ for intercoms ordering nurses to stations,
bells releasing teachers to lunch
Lookin’ to stand shoulder to shoulder
with—Workers of the World

I’m a Seoul Man, da-da-da—dat-da-da-da
I’m a Seoul Man, da-da-da—dat-da-da-da
I’m also a Pyongyang, Managua, Manilla,
Teheran Man, too—As opposed to despot
As I am to coup!
When they go high—
Pole dancing palace and peacock throne—
I go low— on my own: grassroots, salt of the earth…
Lookin’ here and there, searchin’ everywhere
Listenin’ for stiffening spine, rattling chain
leaping from guitars and marching to drums;
Lookin’ for ruby banners and fiery pens;
Lookin’ for actors; not dupes and dopes
dangling on dicks of dictators, kleptocrats,
torturers, Czars—like Negroz and liberals
dangled from The Drone Ranger…

© 2019. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

© 2019. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.,br/> Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished poet and performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

poetry

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


More Stories


  • Attack Against Haiti’s De Facto Prime Minister on Independence Day (+Core Group)
    José Manuel Blanco Diaz
    Attack Against Haiti’s De Facto Prime Minister on Independence Day (+Core Group)
    04 Jan 2022
    The Core Group chose Ariel Henry as the de-factor president of Haiti, in defiance of the people's wishes. But a conflict among factions makes his position insecure and resulted in a recent assa
  • MLK Day at Camp Lemonnier, US Army
    T.J. Coles
    Using and Abusing Djibouti: How the US Transformed a Tiny African state Into a Hub of Imperial Aggression
    04 Jan 2022
    From Djibouti, the US trains proxies and bombs strategically-important countries in the name of democracy and counterterrorism.
  • Why We Must Defend Julian Assange
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Why We Must Defend Julian Assange
    14 Dec 2021
    Julian Assange is one of the political prisoners that the US claims not to have.
  • Essay: Lynch Law in America, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, 1900
    Black Agenda Review
    Essay: Lynch Law in America, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, 1900
    14 Dec 2021
    Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s “Lynch Law in America” remains a compelling account of white violence as both savage and systemic, and of the US as irredeemable.
  • On the Fundamental Differences Between Capitalist “Democracy” and Socialist Democracy
    Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
    On the Fundamental Differences Between Capitalist “Democracy” and Socialist Democracy
    14 Dec 2021
    The United States recent democracy summit would have been laughable if its implications were not so serious.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us