Our song, “The Internationale!”

by Raymond Nat Turner

The world was pregnant 

with two revolutions—fraternal twins—

Newborns cresting, crowning—pushing violently

from contracting wombs…We rejoiced, showering

them with

Revolutionary love!

Morphing, miraculously in tune;

the hungry hundreds’ voices rose

on salt swollen feet

In French, Farsi, Spanish, Russian, Tagalog,

Arabic, Hindi, Punjabi, Portuguese, Japanese,

Mandarin, Cantonese, Creole, Korean, English, etc.

Piston fists pumping to sun, stars, moon—

Our universe. Majestic incantation, “We have

been naught, 

We shall be all…” Multilingual blending, crescendoing

like tympani spreading spinal chills—Then snatching

breath from our chests with mighty, wow finish:

“The Internationale shall be the Human race!!”

Too soon we’d see these infant revolutions ripped 

from their cribs—from their

Mothers’ and

Midwives’ lactating breasts—And inexperienced

Arms…

And, yet, our song still resounds in jungles,

clandestine forests, barren deserts. Still echoes

off barbed wire and blackened bars of torture

chambers in filthy hellholes…

Our song’s polyglot harmony occasionally rising in

Surprising spaces;

belted out sometimes over orchestration of the world’s 

‘richest’ men’s space boy-toys. Over Intelligence 

Kings of white nationalist internationals’ Multi-polar

missile music/nuclear nightmare suites conducted by

Truncheon.

Our song still cuts through capitalist-roader nights with

a thousand eyes and facial recognition. Surveillance

state symphonies composed on elephant-eared walls and

eagle-eyed streets, scored on bloodstained rectangular rags

Our song still cries out, “Arise ye prisoners of starvation…”

Not, “ye yachtsmen flying the Jolly Roger for spheres of

Influence…”

Not, “ye capitalist-roaders becoming billionaires on pearls of

Toilers’ sweat…”

Our song still cries out, “A better world’s in birth…”   And

“ The earth shall rise on new foundations…” 

suggesting cooks can govern—the “human race” includes 

Women, Black, Brown, LGBTQ+ —And

Toilers must be deciders!

Raymond Nat Turner can be reached at upsurgejazz@gmail.com