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

Warriors we are…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
22 Jun 2022
🖨️ Print Article
Warriors we are…
2020 San Francisco Protest (Photo: Kit Castagne)

                                                                                                                              Warriors we are…

                                                                                                 (For my Friend Larry’s lean years/in between years)

                                                                                                     “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war,

                                                                                          while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”

                                                                                                                                 – Sun Tzu

Pop-pop-pop-pop—explosions! Kaleidoscopic
cracks of color, age, orientation—in motion—
But no one’s running. No one’s hiding behind
doors; behind desks; Fearing AR-15 weekly reports.

No howling lynchers, hangman’s nooses, hockey
sticks! No bear spray, baseball bats, brass knuckles!
No white supremacist supermarket shooters; No homo
phobic haters! No blu klux klan knees/chokeholds; No
Glocks killing because of—You name the verb—
“…while Black…”

Market and Main parade route. Banners waving,
festooned on San Francisco’s streets
Arms are bridges between dancers, huggers, high
fivers; between generous tossers of extra snacks.
Ivory smiles, improvised explosive devices blasting
stink-eye smug/mean mugs from blissful faces.
Joyful faces, cheering and singing harmoniously!
If this is what Warrior wins look like—we will be
Warriors for windmill/solar panel-size victories…

Everyday people—Warriors—wanting better.
Seizing strength through LOVE.
Rejecting realtors’ flagrant fouls: tarps, tents, card
board mattresses/urine-smelling, shit-slippery streets…

Everyday people—Warriors—wanting better.
Seizing strength through LOVE.
Sweeping stroke, diabetes, cancer, heart attack in four!
Winning dental/healthcare for ALL! Ejecting barking
bellies; trading Franken ‘food’ for Fresh Fruits/Veggies

Everyday people—Warriors—wanting better.
Seizing strength through LOVE.
99% Strength In Numbers—Arab Springs, Occupies, Strike
tobers, George Floyd Summers for un-fracked/unleaded
water
Everyday people—Warriors—wanting better.
Seizing strength through LOVE.
Springing up like Splash Brothers for three point
shots at DAs prosecuting killer cops; booking low Barr Boss
Tweet thugs bleeding budgets for death and destruction

Everyday people—Warriors—wanting better.
Seizing strength through LOVE—through
Justice and Peace pleading with us: man/woman up! Be
Spartacus, Che, Harriet Tubman, Douglass, Fanny Lou,
John Brown, Malcolm, Martin and close this game
Out…

© 2022. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Former forklift driver/warehouse worker/janitor, 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.

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


More Stories


  • "Capitalist Roaders” Shut Down China’s Rural Communes
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    "Capitalist Roaders” Shut Down China’s Rural Communes
    17 Dec 2019
    Mao Tse Tung was right when he warned that “capitalist roaders” had infested the Communist Party, said Zhun Xu, professor of economics at Howard University and author of “From
  • School Desegregation Set Back Black College Football
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    School Desegregation Set Back Black College Football
    17 Dec 2019
    Black colleges once out-performed white schools in producing better football players – until desegregation happened, said Derrick White, professor of history at the University
  • ​​​​​​​The Issue-Less Impeachment: The Corporate Democrats Stand for Nothing, So They Impeach for Nothing
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    ​​​​​​​The Issue-Less Impeachment: The Corporate Democrats Stand for Nothing, So They Impeach for Nothing
    12 Dec 2019
    The corporate Democrats are effectively exonerating themselves and their Republican brethren of the full spectrum of lawlessness that is everyday politics in the belly of the racist, imperial beast
  • The Birth of a Nation: Race and Power in Amerika
    Prince Kapone
    The Birth of a Nation: Race and Power in Amerika
    11 Dec 2019
    White supremacy is just as much a social reality as it is an ideology.
  • Freedom Rider: Abolish the Police
    Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Abolish the Police
    11 Dec 2019
    Trump’s attorney general threatened to withdraw police “protection” from Black communities – but, of course, no such thing exists.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us