by Raymond Nat Turner
We’ll always need Race car drivers roaring
down streets where children chase balls; like
We’ll always need peaceful protesters pepper
sprayed like cockroaches; And
We’ll always need sleeping seven year-olds shot
while dreaming of dolls, sleepovers, tooth fairies;
We’ll always need children playing with toy guns
in parks executed before becoming “Hulk Hogans”
We’ll always need doors kicked in and our daughters
and sons slaughtered in wee hours - even if it is the
Wrong address…
We’ll always need elderly parents whacked for
Accidentally pressing emergency alerts; like
We’ll always need mentally ill loved ones massacred
in our homes…
We’ll always need men rushing pregnant wives to
Hospitals shot for speeding; And fathers of six
Hustling too hard chokehold lynched;
We’ll always need young women who drive and
smoke, stopped and suicided; And mothers wearing
masks wrong wrestled down in subway stations — as
their 4 year-olds watch…
We’ll always need wallets mistaken for guns - Glocks
for Tasers; fleeing Black men shot in their backs; And
bridegrooms butchered, night before their weddings…
We’ll always need Tasered hearts skanking
in Reggae rhythms; And broken broomsticks
rammed up mens’ rectums for fun…
We’ll always need bruised, bloodied, disfigured
Faceseyeballs dangling from sockets;
We’ll always need drugs and guns planted —
Growing into cases, concertina wire, COVID-19…
We’ll always need right hooves raised Testi-lying
To judges and juries of peers on the need for knees
on necks — 56 licks or 41 shots — Served to Protect
Property
Oooh, what a lil’ Movement can do…
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”― Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Oooh,oooh…
Oooh,oooh…
Oooh, oooh…
Oooh, oooh…
Oooh, oooh, what a lil’ movement can do for you
Oooh, oooh, what a lil’ movement can do for you—
U.S. killer cops are being fired and arrested—
Because worldwide mighty tens of millions protested!
Quick, fast, and in a hurry—out of desperation—
the Dems are writing reams of toothless legislation—
Legislation’s piling up like pearly bales of cotton—
and everyone’s mouthing, “Capitalism’s rotten…”
Bought and paid for ones don Kente, taking bended knees—
they’re even doin’ ‘splits,’ begging, “Baby, please, please!”
Oooh, oooh, what a lil’ movement can do for you
Oooh, oooh, what a lil’ movement can do for you—
Cop-calling ‘Karens’ getting called out and fired
Unca Ben and Aunt Jemima have finally retired
Slavery’s stars and bars got banned at NASCAR
And Euro drivers rallied behind the one Black star!
Glorious struggle’s gifting us time to cheer and brag—
Mississippi even pulled down the slaver’s rag
suddenly confederate statues are tumbling down—
and young Euros are speaking the most fluent John Brown
Oooh, oooh, what a lil’ movement can do for you
Oooh, oooh, what a lil’ movement can do for you—
rechristening parks, plazas, schools, streets at warp speed
steeled elders mentor warrior youth for the lead…
staunch youth learning world-change ain’t a spectator sport
joining Longshore workers shutting a major world port
Workers kicking racist gun thugs out of labor’s house
as Democratic Party preachers play the church mouse
Not Yankees, Raiders, Warriors—The GOAT—or LeBron
Time for sitting on the sidelines is long, long, long gone…
Oooh, oooh, what a lil’ movement can do for you
Oooh, oooh, what a lil’ movement can do for you—
New generations learning in College Of The Streets—
testing in teargas and other phenomenal feats…
Youth beaten, maced, teargassed, arrested and tortured
don’t pluck bad apples from a whole rotten orchard
growing weary of pleas for peaceful coexistence
Learning the awesome power of active resistance
street heat’s clearly shoutin’ “Normal don’t live here No Mo’—
And now his whole frakkkin’ family has got to go!”
Oooh, oooh…
Oooh, oooh…
Oooh, oooh…
Oooh, oooh…
what a
lil’ movement
can
do
for YOU…
It’s capitalism, baby…
Gravediggers feed hungry Hart
Island trenches plain pine boxes;
stacked three-high, they rest side
by side in solidarity.
For now, they share island real
estate with AIDS and1918 Flu fallen.
New York is not new to this.
Ask African Burial Ground
Ancestors—it’s capitalism, baby…
799 died today.
Tasered with temperatures of 103.5
and shortness of breath—
A bus driver, track-worker and a couple
of conductors I know on sight and speak
to, came down with chills. They’ve breathed
welding manganese, steel dust and diesel
fumes decades for New Yorkers—Yet, they
couldn’t be tested—it’s capitalism, baby…
What if they’d whispered Three Little Words?
Pleaded 12 times—instead of 11—like
Eric Garner as the long, white, tatted
arm of the law crushed his windpipe?
What if they’d pleaded, “I can’t Breathe…”
12—or even 13 times—would they’ve been
Tested, treated and alive today?
That’s not MTA’s concern. Bottom line,
liability, lawsuits are—it’s capitalism, baby…
Nurses slash garbage bags open—using them
as PPE/Personal Protection Equipment.
Docs reuse gloves and masks—multiple patients—
in the world’s ‘richest’ country—it’s capitalism, baby…
Hand sanitizer was $15 a bottle yesterday—
$50 today—if you can find it.Ventilators were
$25,000 yesterday—$45,000 today and climbing—
It’s capitalism, baby…
If water is life, hand-washing’s a lifesaver.
Unelected ‘emergency’ management cut
Detroit water off and poisoned pennywise
Flint’s—oh, please—it’s capitalism, baby…
San Francisco hotel rooms sit empty.
The unhoused “shelter in place” below
freeways; in overcrowded shelters and
on cold convention center floors; oh well—
it’s capitalism, baby…
“The Town Crier,” Raymond Nat Turner, is a NYC poet and Artistic Director of the stalwart JazzPoetry Ensemble UpSurge. He currently is Poet-in-Residence at Black Agenda Report. and Co-Chair of the New York Chapter of the National Writers Union (NWU).
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