He’s, obviously, not a New Yorker,
riding trains 4 and 5 in the morning.
Trains packed with hoodie-crowned;
shuttered chocolate, mocha, peanut
butter, caramel, coffee-colored faces—
Lunch bucket UN—palpable power,
Grabbing their last Zs, before Shifts
Holding levers, running the city.
He, obviously, gets no coffee,
street snacks, scarves, gloves,
posters, CDs, DVDs, caps, T-shirts
from carts and stands tourists treasure;
Carts and stands powered by African, Asian,
Latin American, Caribbean, Middle Eastern labor…
Lord knows he’s never been
to bodegas named Ameer's,
or Branson’s juice bar,
or the Texas Star,
Tarboosh, Nanoosh,
Cafe One, Clove, Dig Inn,
or Peace Food—where
Workers from plundered countries
Toil—countries Boss Tweet dissed!
Eateries where workers break bread,
rub shoulders, swap stories: U.S. bases,
Blood-soaked “boots on the ground,” Coups,
Death squads, decomposing bodies, bullets,
Bombs, missiles chasing families from
smoldering homelands…“in harm’s way”
Tweet’s just a paper towel-tossing,
beetle-brained, feces-faced
Clown, giving cover to 1%
Pickpockets working the crowd—
Look for him in the sewer…
Days when all trains empty at
City Hall and Wall Street…
Raymond Nat Turner © 2018 All Rights Reserved
Our poet in residence, Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.
In this week’s segment we hear analysis of the Gaza peace agreement, why it took place, and the future of Palestine. But first we hear about data centers, A.I., and their negative impact on the…
We speak with Kali Akuno, co-founder and Director of Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi. He joins us from Jackson to discuss the construction of an Amazon web services data center and the…
Donald Trump traveled to Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt to sign what is being called a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian resistance that he takes credit for brokering. But what are the…
The Nobel Peace Prize is an anachronism and a compromised “honor” as the struggle against the U.S. and its collective west allies intensifies. The peoples of the world know who is fighting for peace…
“Israel has played a relatively invisible but strategically important role in Africa as a servant of the United States…”
