Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

If The Shoe Fits...
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
05 Sep 2012
🖨️ Print Article

 

by Raymond Nat Turner

“In our marching shoes, yes, we can

Discover trails less traveled

Connecting us with sage spirits

Sampling James Brown with John

Brown”

 

If The Shoe Fits...

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

Shoe leather was once

Voting's egg, blood, its sperm...

Shoe's on the other foot, now

So, to vote, or not to vote

Is not the question---the

Commander even chided and

Derided us: Swap "bedroom

Slippers" for "marching shoes"

 

In our marching shoes, yes, we can

Click our heels like children

Catching burnt orange and ebony

Butterflies filled with freedom to fly

 

In our marching shoes, yes, we can

Conjure comets and name them

"Rebellion," "Underground," "Utopian,"

"Civil," "Survival" and celestial bodies coming...

 

In our marching shoes, yes, we can

Scale the Shangri-la where

Seventy-five year olds march like

Twenty-five year olds and

Twenty-five year olds orate like

Seventy-five year olds,shoulder

To shoulder striking, sitting-in,

Picketing, teaching and taking 

Care of one another on filaments

Of shoestring budgets...

 

In our marching shoes, yes, we can

Discover trails less traveled

Connecting us with sage spirits

Sampling James Brown with John

Brown, disturbing the universe, questioning

Everything about a corrupt, rotten pyramid

Scheme stitched together with tear gas,

Bullets, bombs and LIES...

 

In our marching shoes, blisters and all,

We're the ones we've been waiting for---

Cast Prada, Nike, Reebok ballots

At bought and bossed footmen!

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at Raymond (at) upsurgejazz.com.

(c) 2012 All rights Reserved

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • Aseel Saleh
    Terrorist Groups Take Control Over Key Areas in Northwestern Syria amid Fierce Clashes with Government Forces
    04 Dec 2024
    The United States has escalated its proxy war in Syria with the help of jihadist allies and continues destabilizing the entire West Asia region.
  • Robert Inlakesh
    Anti-NGO Bills – US Poised to Carry Out Witch Hunt against Pro-Palestine Non-Profits
    04 Dec 2024
    Proposed legislation uses the politicized weaponization of governmental power to stymie free speech and actively stamp out pro-Palestinian voices.
  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio November 29, 2024
    29 Nov 2024
    This week, we discuss the military conflict in Sudan between warring factions. First, we discuss the International Criminal Court, which recently issued arrest warrants for Israeli officials.
  • ICC warrant
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Ali Abunimah on the ICC Arrest Warrants Issued for Israeli Officials
    29 Nov 2024
    Ali Abunimah joins us from Chicago to discuss the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas…
  • People leaving Khartoum, Sudan
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Abayomi Azikiwe Analyses the Conflict in Sudan
    29 Nov 2024
    Abayomi Azikiwe provides analysis on the military conflict in the Sudan which has so far been unresolved despite attempts at peace making.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us