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Scouting
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
04 Jan 2023
🖨️ Print Article
Scouting
Boy Scouts in Arlington, Virginia in 1953 (Image: Arlington public library)

Scouting

day dreaming, dreaming, anticipating

a Hollywood Bowl where some master

painter splashed stars

all over night’s navy blue canvas…

Wow! Were we in awe? So insignificant

in the grand scheme of the

painting; its sovereign clarity—

its status; its ultimate one-upmanship?

day dreaming, dreaming, anticipating

more navy blue pants, more navy blue shirts,

caps; and gold scarves of fledgling Cub Scouts…

Our yellow bus pulled

into the lower lot among

an armada of other yellow busses

day dreaming, dreaming, anticipating

crisp practice of white handbook pages;

of memorized rules—cherished code of

Conduct—One for all/All for one ways

of being in the world…

Our yellow bus pulled

into the lower lot among

an armada of other yellow busses

day dreaming, dreaming, anticipating

tent talk; talk of knots tied with wider,

with new navy blue crew…

Our yellow bus pulled up and parked

among the armada of yellow busses—

Unloading more blue pants, blue shirts,

caps; more gold scarves… Unloading expresso,

mocha, tan, paper bag brown, cinnamon, caramel cargo…

Before—without warning—awful reign of rocks fell from

Lot above—Fell with wild, weaponized cries:

“GO HOME CHOCOLATE DROPS!!!!”

“GO HOME CHOCOLATE DROPS!!!!”

“GO HOME CHOCOLATE DROPS!!!!”



© 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.

Anti-Black Racism
Los Angeles

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