Once upon a time wagons
circled ‘round The Juice and
bassackwards Thom-ass
Clarence. Today, I see
semi-circled wagons and
hear tears in voices and
explanations that don’t
Explain… I feel like saying,
Lady Day like, “Hush, now…”
You see, once upon a time
ketchup was a Vegetable;
contras Freedom Fighters;
Vietnam noble;
Bottled water a
Crime of status as
Alphabet agencies
flooded the ‘hood with
white powder, prison
culture/murder music—
The Reagan ‘80s
when Jel-
Low
Puddin’
Man
trickled
down
Jel-
Low
Puddin’
Man
trickled
down
on a landscape littered with blood,
bodies, caged men and women—their
Heroic Black Liberation Movement/War
Exhausted…
Jel-
Low
Puddin’
Man
trickled
down
piling
sugary
skyscrapers
of Huxtabullshit
on the black bourgeoisie’s
Taste for franchises, sub-
contracts, soft leather
seats in boardrooms—
On alley Black backs…
Jel-
Low
Puddin’
Man
trickled
down
and
Teddy told me—and I’m
paraphrasing— “I think
you betta let it go… if it
Looks like another Booker TKO!”
© 2018. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved
Joy James uses poet Lucille Clifton's image of “new bones” to reflect on a series of revolutionary anniversaries in 2021 and the nature of political leadership.
Dominican racial logic frequently contradicts what US scholars think they know about how race works.
Black History Month strengthened Black German claims of kinship with their nation and the larger diaspora.
The Black political class is wedded to the centrist Democrats for its “fatback and biscuits” patronage.
Judges, prosecutors and sheriffs in many states sent people home instead of to jail last year, but new data suggests the change is not lasting.
