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
  • omnibus

Who’s a Worker? (for Leo, Clarence, Jack, Trent and ILWU Local 10 Brothers and Sisters)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
24 Jun 2020
🖨️ Print Article
Who’s a Worker? (for Leo, Clarence, Jack, Trent and ILWU Local 10 Brothers and Sisters)
Who’s a Worker? (for Leo, Clarence, Jack, Trent and ILWU Local 10 Brothers and Sisters)

I’ve prepped produce; bagged bread; 
stocked shelves; pulled products for-
ward on shelves of several stores. So
I bring nothing but love for frontline 

Food workers.
I’ve shared warm handmade corn tortillas 
and piping hot pinto beans with workers of
Bent back magic:Workers whose brown hands 
pull green salads from black soil at warp speed;
for microscopic compensation and appreciation

I’ve broken bread with heroic workers donning
plastic armor fighting infection, slaying pain—
beating back the dragon of death.
And I’ll own my crushes on workers waltzing
articulated coaches through crowded cities— 
carrying Colts in purses for personal protection

And I’ve long admired my Longshore Brothers 
and Sisters emptying 
bulging bags of grain from bellies of ships, un-
stacking skyscrapers of containers from their
decks for warehouses, windows, bellies of the world

I’ve farted blue forklift fumes as a warehouse worker,
swooping on 18-wheelers pulling pallets of TVs off; I’ve 
stacked shelves with mufflers, floor jacks, tools; Snatched
stoves and refrigerators from racks stacked: “Too High.”
I’ve swept and mopped floors kitchen clean, emptied waste-
baskets, scrubbed toilets pearly white, moved 55 gallon drums
of oil-laden metal shavings—even poisoned weeds—As a janitor…

So, excuse me if I have a hard time understanding
Workers who kettle kids in tight spaces, shooting projectiles in their faces; Workers who beat strikers with long bats breaking up their militant wildcats; 
Workers who grind knees in to necks and receive fat six-figure checks;
Workers who produce
Violence and tension and receive benefits and a pension?

© 2020. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.                   

BAR’s poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com .

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at comments@blackagendareport.com

poetry

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


Related Stories

Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Poem for Walter Rodney, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, 1981  
11 June 2025
“any where or world where there is love there is the sky and its blue free
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A few lines for the Poet Ojenke...
21 May 2025
RIP: Rise In Poetics to Ra
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Reflections after the June 12th March of Disarmament, Sonia Sanchez, 1982
18 December 2024
“I have come to you tonite not just for the stoppage
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Love My Black Job
11 September 2024
Love my Black Job— Black Student Union Job! Hired at L.A. City College As “The Peoples Poet!”
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Enemy of the Sun, Samih al-Qasim, 1970
29 May 2024
Read against the terrible incineration of Rafah today, this poem of resistance and refusal, by Pa
Image of Refaat Alareer sitting in a crowd of graduates
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: If I Must Die, Refaat Alareer, 2023
13 December 2023
Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, a martyr of zionist state genocidal violence, has left us with a tale of resistance and hope.
Protest for Palestine at the White House
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Trigger Warning
22 November 2023
Trigger Warning Palestine’s the Answer— What was the Question?
Another June 1
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Another June 1
07 June 2023
                                       
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
16 February 2022
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Our ‘democracy’
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Our ‘democracy’
23 July 2021
Shangri-La—untaxed, socially-distanced champagne- caviar, Cayman Island, yacht crowds who

More Stories


  • Audra Diptée
    Operation Legacy: How Britain covered up its colonial crimes
    24 Apr 2024
    The British sought to cover up their atrocities in Africa and the Caribbean by manipulating information to obfuscate history. 
  • UAW organizers
    Luis Feliz Leon
    Tennessee Volkswagen Workers Vote Union
    24 Apr 2024
    The vote by Volkswagon workers in Tenessee to unionize with the United Auto Workers union is a clear indication that it is possible to organize in the South.
  • Children near destroyed solar panels in Gaza
    Melissa Garriga
    Don’t Let Warmongers Greenwash their Ecocide this Earth Day
    24 Apr 2024
    The destruction of the environment and acceleration of the climate crisis happen silently under the veil of “national security,” despite the fact that the environmental toll of war is the most…
  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio April 19, 2024
    19 Apr 2024
    This week we discuss the proliferation of lies about non-citizen voting and U.S. policy toward Niger. First, we talk to Danny Haiphong about U.S. policy toward China and what we can learn from…
  • Danny Haiphong
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    China's Example in the World
    19 Apr 2024
    We are joined by Danny Haiphong to discuss the current delegation to China that Margaret Kimberley has joined, U.S./China relations, and the importance of studying Chinese socialism.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us