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


  • Corporate Media and Fake Leftists are the Real Traitors to Press Freedoms
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Corporate Media and Fake Leftists are the Real Traitors to Press Freedoms
    29 Apr 2019
    Asked why purported “progressives” insist on expressing their personal dislike for Julian Assange, noted author Maximillian Forte, a professor of anthropology at Concordia Uni
  • Mumia: Media Joined the “War Against Assange”
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Mumia: Media Joined the “War Against Assange”
    29 Apr 2019
    The nation’s best known political prisoner expressed solidarity with Julian Assange and lambasted those institutions that turned their backs on the independent publisher while claiming to defend pr
  • Bail Out a Sister for Mother's Day
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Bail Out a Sister for Mother's Day
    29 Apr 2019
    Black women are the fastest growing segment of the US prison population, said Efia Nwangaza, director of the Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination, in Greenville, South
  • ADOS Opposes Free College and Student Debt Forgiveness
    Bruce A. Dixon , BAR managing editor
    Why ADOS “Reparationists” Oppose Free Tuition and Student Debt Forgiveness
    27 Apr 2019
    Reparationists have been around for a long time, but for some reason this season the bi
  • Stop Sanders: The Year of the Corporate Long Knives
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Stop Sanders: The Year of the Corporate Long Knives
    25 Apr 2019
    It is inconceivable that the Lords of Capital will tolerate a financial industry-slayer in the White House. They will thwart his campaign – by any means necessary.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us