For Brother Bruce
Here’s the FOIA requested,
Redacted part of the story they never tell
You.
Baby Bruce was wandering
the Midwest with Dorothy and Toto—
Before they picked up the Tinman in
Pittsburgh, the Scarecrow on Staten Island,
the Cowardly Lion in Los Angeles
Baby Bruce had a baby brain, a huge
heart and fully formed courage that
would be schooled and steeled at the
point of production—
Molding a straight-up soldier on
The Long March; A rank-in-file,
meet ‘em where they’re at,
shoe leather, serve the people,
door-to-door knocking,
troublemaking organizer;
Chitown stubborn kinda fella—
stubborn as a Georgia mule—
Refusing to slip, on Iceberg Slim
posing as community organizer…
He had huge heart, big brain and
courage. Barrel of his pen blazing—
welcoming me from the wilderness,
Cali isolation, to fight side by side
Against the masked man— The
Drone Ranger; when icons and
Legends were losing their minds
and Slutty Professors dangled
on the dick of Deporter-in-Chief!
When Bruce’s 404 popped up on my phone
It was business—but personal—laughing, joking,
we’d cover the waterfront with lunch bucket language…
I pray The Wizard put a Bruce Dixon Organizer’s App
on my phone countering some spyware…
© 2019. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
…For Brother Glen “When an elder dies, a library burns to the ground…” —African proverb (gender-adjusted) I.
Glen Ford was deeply committed to liberating people everywhere.
Glen Ford’s daughter explains his lifelong commitment to Black people.
Glen Ford followed in the footsteps of another legendary Black journalist.
Black radical analysis was the foundation of Glen Ford's work.
