NYC mayor ordered that the unhoused be moved from public spaces. (Photo: Karla Ann Cote/NurPhoto via ZUMA Press)
Papa Cop
(and other intersectional servants of empire)
“Be realistic, demand the impossible!”
—Che Guevara
I.
Moblutu logic of a Strongman—Unquestionable—
Never wrong man:
I wore a dick for decades—protected women
of the world…When you do that you have the
right to question me on patriarchy and feminism…
Moblutu logic of a Strongman—Unquestionable—
Never wrong man:
I have 0—ZEEERO—Tolerance for the unhoused, the unwashed
stinking vermin riding my trains all night/sleeping in my subway
stations!
They’ll take Manhattan—The Bronx and Staten—and be panhandling
on Wall Street, if I don’t crack down on their dirty black asses! If I
don’t deploy—if I don’t go Broken Windows—blu Ton-Ton Macoute-
style on ‘em!
Moblutu logic of a Strongman—Unquestionable—
Never wrong man:
Those bums don’t want roofs over their heads. They just wanna
ride my trains back and forth for free all night! They just wanna
stink and disturb good clean white folks buying up Blacks’ brown
stones located on Lenni Lenape land… It’s a thin blu line
between love and hate—and good white folks’ Real Estate…
Moblutu logic of a Strongman—Unquestionable—
Never wrong man:
Through the storm of pandemic price-gouging; tsunami of illegal
Evictions; In the face of raging flames I see no evil, hear no evil,
speak no evil of arsonist slumlords and their fire trap buildings—
Right down to the wire—even through the fire…
II.
A gentleman—who’s hittin’ triple digits in two weeks—shook his
head and said, “Maybe we wuz betta off wit Hi Jon de Conkur
Root, black cat dandur, goobur dus’ an’ rabbit foots den Dem
Lightfoots,
Papa Cop/Raytheon’s Raven/Ladee Blu an’ otha blu blood
backed-Negroz?”
He said, “You remembur, de ones wit all dat nappy-headed
foolishness—
whoopin’, an’ hollerin’, an’ happy-dancin’ on ice
durin’ dat Iceburg Slim boy’s War House comin’ in party?
He said, “You know, de Negroz dat knew dey bebbys wouldn’t
be struk by
boms, missuls an’ drones; Or choke-holt by de blu klux klan?”
He said, “Hell, look lak we wuz betta off wit ol’ spookisms lak:
If you seez a star, run, make a wish, an’ it’ll come true… An’, if
a dog howlin’ in de nite, turn up de soles ob yo’ shooz an’ he’ll
Stop!
Look lak we wuz betta off wit ol’ spookisms den believin’ in Dem
Negroz wit dey freezurs stuffed full ob’ cash—Dem Negroz beggin’
Kibbuls and Bits—for us–frum de Five Families…’tween dey
WARS?”
© 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: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-town-criers-big-tooth-fund PayPal: paypal.me/towncrierRNT
This week readers discussed the presidential primary, the rise of neoliberalism, and the passing of Bruce Dixon. Your letters are printed for “
“Code speaking” in the presence of Power can be strategic, but it is also fraught with perils for Black folk.
“Deserts are natural phenomena, but the lack of food services in Black communities is a systemic, man-made evil.
Harris favored criminalizing truancy, raising cash bail fees and keeping prisoners locked up for cheap labor.
Between 1968 and the end of the ‘70s, the Bronx was the scene of thousands of fires.
