Hair in the game…

By Raymond Nat Turner

Stench of burning burkas accompanying rhythms

of swishing scissors shearing sable curls, wavy

brown manes, straight tresses salt and pepper,

And locks of sundry shades of grey and white.

Harmonizing with soprano shouts of “Death To 

The Dictator!” morphing from cries for

Equal rights exploding in Red Sea streets…

Iranians are rising again! Rising in prerequisite 

Movements…Maybe it’s a flashback — 1909?

Maybe it’s a Mosaddegh moment? Maybe more?

Maybe this is it? Maybe it’s the next one? 

Some of us remember Iranian demonstrations — 

circa late 70s. Brilliant/militant feats of flesh and

Blood engineering…

Young and strong. Marching all night long —  

thru twists and turns, staunch slogan soundtracks;

Playing cat and mouse out cul-de-sac traps set

by San Francisco’s political police — Truncheoned

thugs whose hand-eye coordination with the Shah’s

SAVAK intelligence tentacles reached out from icy fog

Some of us remember marchers’ names. Firouz, Mansour, 

Mahdi, Azad…

remember they spoke English — but read the Germans in 

Farsi.

Some of us remember standing in solidarity with them as

the peacock throne collapsed  

Under gargantuan weight of street heat/fire of millions of

Feet in the street. 

Some of us remember our comrades’ and friends’ rapture —  

rushing home and rejoicing — 

Never to be heard from again…

Today we stand in solidarity with women who have hair in 

The Game — Women marching through

Mushroom clouds of teargas, tsunamis of lead — Red Seas of 

Death — resisting misogynist mullahs and murderous ‘morality’ 

Police…To topple theocratic thugs wrapped in robes of graft

Today we stand in solidarity with hearts/souls/spines of the

Common People:

Mothers, daughters, sisters, wives of warehouse workers — 

of bus and truck drivers, of train operators — fierce fighters —  

Once again on their long and winding road of revolution…

friction lubricated by oil workers throwing themselves in the 

Resistance

Martyred Mahsa Amini’s the Rock of Gibraltar bloodthirsty clerics

lifted

to 

drop 

on

Their own scarlet-stained sandals, crimson-covered combat boots — 

TEACHing

Us how we must take on our own Texas Taliban/Florida fundamentalists…

Raymond Nat Turner is Black Agenda Report’s poet in residence and an accomplished performing artist. You can find much more of his work at upsurgejazz.com