Upside of slavery according to Governor Woke Smoke?

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence

02 Aug 2023

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“…most slave children were prohibited from learning to read or write…”

—James Mellon, Editor of Bullwhip Days

I.

Ashanti, Fulani, Wolof, Yoruba,

Ibo, Hausa, Mandinga and more—

Woodworkers, metalworkers, rice

Farmers, healers, navigators, weavers, scholars,

philosophers, fishermen, sailors, scientists,

alchemists, teachers, artists, musicians and more

Disjointed flashbacks…Schematics of slave ships;

rusted smoke stacks and sugar mills littering Choctaw

Land; littering Mississippi river banks. Work-worn bones in

mass graves littering Seminole land. Fertilizing crimson soil.

Commemorating iron-fisted rule of King Cotton, Queen Sugar, royal

rice and tobacco. Demanding reflection, study, discussion, reparations…

II.

In “Dope”Amiri calls, “Wasn’t slavery

Cool?”

Governor Woke Smoke responds: *“Ooo-ooo…

“Now, I’m the kinda guy who don’t believe

Slavery is dead—Naw

Like SCOTUS once told a

Black fella by the name of Dred

(Beat ‘em back to slavery…)

Ooo, we’ll strip ‘em of their votes—

While they’re debating ‘GOATS’

(Beat ‘em back to slavery…)

We’ll treat ‘em all as crooks—

And we'll ban Black books

(Beat ‘em back to slavery…)

III.

There were known knowns And unknown knowns—

Picking tobacco and cotton—Can’t see in the morning to

Can’t see at night. Water and rest breaks not among them.

Upside to slavery? Maybe yesterday’s cops leaning from

saddles— Going

Upside sweaty heads with shotgun butts for the slightest infractions?

Governor Woke Smoke suggests Slavery was *CETA

before CETA— smorgasbord of skillsets on the table

where one Could get blacksmith, bricklayer, bootblack,

baker, bookkeeper, fiddler dreams on…Hip setting where

One could Just do it—Nike before Nike!

Shangri-La where startups were soon running their own

Plantations—provided “travelin papers,” small stipends,

seed money, manuals— glowing letters of recommendation,

And blessings with White linen suit/Mint julep memories…

Yessir, the once enslaved left highly skilled for:

imprinting barcodes on brown flesh;

chopping feet of freedom-seeking field hands off;

pouring honey over heads buried up to their necks

and watching the ants work;

prying thighs apart, ramming members into dry

orifices and muffling screams;

gunning down insubordinate workers/instilling fear…

Guess Harvard taught Governor Woke Smoke to see Up-

side slavery skills in Black Sites? In Extraordinary Rendition?

In Enhanced Interrogation—‘Quaint’ Gitmo water-boarding and

force-feeding sessions—He so skillfully oversaw?

Poet’s notes: * Inspired by “Treat Her Like A Lady”

by Temptations Ali-Ollie Woodson and Otis Williams.

** CETA stands for Comprehensive Employment and Training Act.

© 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.

Florida

Ron DeSantis

Slavery in U.S.

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