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Saturday Mornings
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
29 Mar 2023
Saturday Mornings
Caffie Greene

                                                                                                                    Saturday Mornings                                                                                                  

                                                                                                             “Poetry is always dissident.”

                                                                                                                      —Octavio Paz

 

There was muted Miles when we
Woke Saturday mornings—
when we rose from slumber
to scents of sausage, potatoes,
bacon, eggs, coffee.
There was muted Miles when we
Woke to waffle scents wafting
from the Sunbeam waffle iron.

Maybe manicures and pedicures
post-breakfast? Maybe the barber
would pick us up on his way to
work for close-cropped hair and
nourishing adult ear worms?
Maybe I’d be pitching? Brother
Steve catching—or vacuuming
shots up from second base?

My Mother could organize
All that— rip off apron and gavel
meetings to order; pull picket lines
together; run California campaigns
for assembly and senatorial seats—
Or, settle long-simmering disputes…

No cape. No “S” on her chest. No
unusual way of getting around. She
was just Mom.
Crazy Mom inviting me to attend
some meeting with her. My reply:
“I don’t wanna go to your political meetings
I just wanna play Little League Baseball!”

Her muted Miles response, “Everything is
Political…
How do you think your park got there?
How do you think your coach got hired?”

© 2023. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
 

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 and PayPal.

Los Angeles
Black Liberation Movement

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