Blog Archive

Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Haki R. Madhubuti

 

But He Was Cool, or: he even stopped for green lights

super-cool
ultrablack
a tan/purple
had a beautiful shade.

he had a double-natural
that wd put the sisters to shame.
&his beads were imported sea shells

    (from some blk/country i never heard of)

he was triple-hip.

his tikis were hand carved
out of ivory
&came express from the motherland.
he would greet u in swahili
&say good-by in yoruba.
woooooooooooo-jim he bes so cool &ill tel li gent

    cool-cool is so cool he was un-cooled by other niggers' cool
    cool-cool ultracool was bop-cool/ice box cool so cool cold cool
    his wine didn't have to be cooled, him was air conditioned cool
    cool-cool/real cool made me cool--now ain't that cool
    cool-cool so cool him nick-named refrigerator.

cool-cool so cool
he didn't know,
after detroit, newark, chicago &c.,
we had to hip

    cool-cool/ super-cool/ real cool
    that

to be black
is
to be
very-hot.

No comments:

Post a Comment

  The poet Susan Howe, 77, at right, and her daughter, the painter R. H. Quaytman, 53, in Quaytman’s house, designed by the American sculpto...