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


  • Reparations for Development and Justice for the Caribbean
    Prime Minister Gaston Browne
    Reparations for Development and Justice for the Caribbean
    23 Oct 2019
    The labor costs alone of our forebears would have created a debt of approximately two trillion dollars, which must be repaid.
  •  Black Agenda Radio for Week of Monday, October 21, 2019
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of Monday, October 21, 2019
    21 Oct 2019
    Duboisian Scholar to Address BAR Gathering on “Building a Black Left”
  • Poor, Black LGBTQ Youth Still Suffering
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Poor, Black LGBTQ Youth Still Suffering
    21 Oct 2019
    Although LGBTQ communities have a much higher political profile than in the past, Mustafa Sullivan, director of FIERCE, an organization that builds leadership among LGBTQ yout
  • Obama's War in Syria Led to Trump’s War in Syria
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Obama's War in Syria Led to Trump’s War in Syria
    21 Oct 2019
    Democrats pretend that the bloodshed in Syria is Donald Trump’s legacy, but Black Alliance for Peace national organizer Ajamu Baraka says, “We have to remind people
  •  Duboisian Scholar to Address BAR Gathering on “Building a Black Left”
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Duboisian Scholar to Address BAR Gathering on “Building a Black Left”
    21 Oct 2019
    “Decades ago, much of the Black Left “turned its back on Black working people in the interest of aligning with the liberal establishment that controls the Democratic Party,” said Dr An
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us