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
  • omnibus

Oz-low Piece Process v. Sugar Hill Play-date …
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
07 Aug 2024
Young child digging through rubble

35 lb question mark,
3 ft exclamation point,
doesn’t cringe at loud sounds or
pee his bed behind nightmares.
Camryn, my three year-old Sugar
Hill neighbor’s an “Old soul.”
I’m honored that he refers to 
me as, “My friend, Raymond.”

Camryn's mommy’s a surgeon, studying
for her boards. His granny’s a history
professor, writing another book. So, I’m
Awarded a Camryn playdate …

Camryn has every truck ever made—
and knows precisely each truck’s function.
He teaches Truck-101to anyone in earshot.

He warns work will not begin before his
bright, yellow hardhat’s jammed over jet
black curls. He buckles his tool belt low and
tight. He’s studied styles and moves of the
Working-class; has them down pat.

Camryn creates tasks for each truck, then
Schools me on how the crane on one truck works.
He doesn’t trust me with the trucks.

Blessed, he believes mommy and granny will
Protect him from scary things; feed and
Hydrate him after he plays hard; read
and sing sleepy-time lullabies, enforcing
Peaceful naps as the Sandman invades …

So, I spare Camryn Fractured Fairytales of
Ambulances twisted into burning, bloody metal
hulks; pieces of cloth, shoes, drivers and assistants.

I spare him Fractured Fairytales from Oz—
Natives driving zig-zag routes ‘round a
Frankenstein scar dissecting their homeland;
Land where his trucks would have different
Color license plates and stop at checkpoints
manned by teenaged thugs eager to cast lead!

Traveling Oz by truck, Camryn might see Caterpillars
crunching toys, houses, olive trees, crushing dreams;
He might see fools flying featherless birds shitting
shrapnel and white fire.

He might hear overloaded donkey carts squealing,
Moaning like Mothers of itty-bitty, bloody bodies
piled on them—bodies later stuffed in ice cream freezers,
to slow their rotting; bodies so shredded, even Camryn's
surgeon mommy—couldn’t put their tiny arms, legs and
Heads back together again …

I spare my friend Fractured Fairytales: crushing trucks
like his.

© 2018. 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.

Palestine
Gaza
Genocide
Children

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


Related Stories

Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration
Historic Genocide Case Heard in Barbados Supreme Court: Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration Demands Accountability Over Gaza Atrocities
09 July 2025
Barbados’ Supreme Court is now at the center of a historic genocide case against Israel, as Caribbean activists demand their government sever ties
Black Alliance For Peace
FIFA and IOC Must Ban the United States and Israel from Hosting or Participating in International Sporting Events
02 July 2025
With an anticipated tens of thousands of international travelers for the World Cup and the Olympic Games, U.S.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: The Beirut Jokebook, June Jordan, 1982
25 June 2025
“What did the Arab lady say to the Israeli tank?”
x
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
The Tactical Failure of Israel/U.S. Attacks on Iran Is Leading Both to a Strategic Disaster
25 June 2025
The U.S.
21st Century Wire Global Affairs
HARVARD REPORT: The Hidden Numbers Behind Gaza’s Real Death Toll
25 June 2025
A recent report prepared by Garb Yaakov, a Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, and published on The President & Fell
Palestine Chronicle Staff
Aid Queue Massacres Continue in Gaza as UN Warns of Mass Starvation
18 June 2025
Israeli occupation forces shot and killed several Palestinians on Sunday morning across various regions of the Gaza Strip, as the humanitarian
Nora Barrows-Friedman
US and Israel Turn “Aid” Centers Into Slaughter Zones
11 June 2025
Nowhere is safe in Gaza.
Mnar Adley
“So They’ll Never Have Children”: American Nurse Says Israeli Soldiers Deliberately Shot Boys in the Penis
11 June 2025
Gaza’s hospitals have become killing fields, and medical workers witness Israeli forces executing unarmed civilians, including children.
Palestine Chronicle Staff
Another Massacre at Rafah Aid Center as Gaza Death Toll Mounts
04 June 2025
Gaza health officials report mass casualties as Israeli forces shell humanitarian aid distribution points.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: The Intellectual Origins of Imperialism and Zionism, Edward Said, 1977
28 May 2025
“In theory and in practice, then, Zionism is a degraded repetition of Europ

More Stories


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    New York Times Joins a White Supremacist In Attacking Zohran Mamdani
    09 Jul 2025
    Zohran Mamdani, the choice of Democratic Party voters in New York City, is anathema to the billionaire class. So much so that the New York Times elevated the work of a white supremacist in an effort…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    EDITORIAL: Even During Disaster, The Pittsburgh Courier, 1927
    09 Jul 2025
    “Neither disaster, catastrophe, nor calamity can take precedence … over the color-caste system.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    UN Group of Experts on DRC Report, June 2025
    09 Jul 2025
    The UN Group of Experts on DRC reports the obvious, that Rwandan President Paul Kagame intends to annex DRC’s Kivu Provinces.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Collaborators Like Al Sharpton Can’t Assist Zohran Mamdani with Circumventing Pigmentation Politics and the Black Misleadership Class…But Principled Black Radical Organizing Can
    09 Jul 2025
    Zohran Mamdani’s victory rattled NYC’s political elite. But to win Black voters and defeat the Democrat machine, he must reject Al Sharpton’s co-optation and align with radical Black organizers who’…
  • Jon Jeter
    From Cadillac-Driving Welfare Queens to Xbox-Playing Slackers, the Oligarchs Vilify Others for Their Own Larceny
    09 Jul 2025
    America’s ruling class keeps inventing new boogeymen to disguise its endless war on workers, while wealth pours upward and capitalism’s collapse accelerates.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us