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Tuesday night’s tiny glimpse of what The People really want
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
12 Nov 2025
🖨️ Print Article
Zohran Mamdani

“Universal suffrage is thus the gauge of the maturity of the working class. It cannot and never will be anything more in the modern state, but that is enough. On the day when the thermometer of universal suffrage shows boiling point among the workers, they as well as the capitalists will know where they stand.” —Frederick Engles

Celebratory blip on history’s continuum, tracing No Kings’ DNA to
Occupy-ish campus encampments. To pink pussy hats — #Me Too.
To Peoples Climate March, Strike-tober seasons of searing street heat —
Arab Spring to George Floyd Summer …

With warehouse hands lick … the Mayor-elect hit my 
Tear note Tuesday night
Hit my tear note like sopranos at Great Hope Baptist
Church, or Lady Day’s lovely “Autumn In New York.”

Bet he hit tear notes of thousands of phone bankers/door-knockers
Teaching NYC to shout No Mo Cuomo? 
Bet he hit tear notes of those reclaiming time from Turkey Trotting, 
Crooked rabbit footnote, PapaCop?

Bet he hit Muslim tear notes Big Apple-wide? Borough by
Borough? County-wide, state-wide?
World-wide with an authentic As-salamu alaykum and
Prayer for deliverance from raggedy-ass Islamophobia?

Bet he hit Jewish tear notes with sincere Shalom aleikhem? With
Recognition of tradition troubling czars, nazis, cossacks and klan?
Recognition of tradition opposing hospital-bombing, baby-killing 
Genocidal maniacs?

Celebratory blip on history’s continuum! DNA of vigilance, steel —
Class struggle — solidarity. Tuesday night’s tiny glimpse reveals
Good things will happen when we Walk; Chew gum; Shout slogans;
Text —  And Organize; Organize; Organize —       At the same time!

© 2025. 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.

New York City
Working Class
U.S. Elections
Zohran Mamdani

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