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


  • Organizers Are Calling on Congress to Close Loophole That Enables Prison Slavery
    Tamar Sarai Davis
    Organizers Are Calling on Congress to Close Loophole That Enables Prison Slavery
    08 Jul 2021
    The ‘slavery clause’ made the passage of restrictions targeting Black people like the Black Codes possible as well as convict leasing of the late 19th century.
  • Defending Our Sovereignty: US Military Bases in Africa and the Future of African Union
    by the Socialist Movement of Ghana’s Research Group
    Defending Our Sovereignty: US Military Bases in Africa and the Future of African Union
    08 Jul 2021
    Neither the Organization of African Unity nor the African Union have been able to realize the two most important principles of pan-Africanism: political unity and territorial sovereignty.
  • BAR Book Forum: Jennifer Goett’s Book, “Black Autonomy”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Jennifer Goett’s Book, “Black Autonomy”
    08 Jul 2021
    The author examines postwar violence through the activism of Afro-Nicaraguan women and men from the Caribbean coast of the country.
  • BAR Book Forum: Adam Elliott-Cooper’s “Black Resistance to British Policing”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Adam Elliott-Cooper’s “Black Resistance to British Policing”
    08 Jul 2021
    Historically, most of Britain’s policing hasn’t taken place on the British mainland – it has taken place in its colonies.
  • Historian Michael Honey Recalls Martin Luther King’s Message of Economic Justice In New Book, “To The Promised Land”
    Peter Kelley
    Historian Michael Honey Recalls Martin Luther King’s Message of Economic Justice In New Book, “To The Promised Land”
    08 Jul 2021
    King said the best anti-poverty program is a union, where you can fight for your own agenda — somebody doesn’t have to hand it to you.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us