| Elvis at
the dinner party
By Stacey Tolbert
Once
upon a time on a Friday night…
Elvis
kept calling my cellie
Cuz
everybody knows He’s not dead right?
asked
me where he could trade in
His
white blue suede shoes for
new
black red Kicks
dred
his hair
Botox
his lips
And
get this?
Said
He
Had
Mandingo
DICK
Tatorship
going on in Texas and now he’s drivin’ a lexus
And
of course
He
has the utmost respect for us
Who
made him
The
jazziest/blusiest/swinginest/palest/bojangles
He
is/was
Was/is
Still
in bizz
And
I’m like
Elvis
pleaassee I’m in the middle of dinner
To
which he replied
"LOVE
…me…ten….der….."
and
surrender to my
afro
stealin
charm
I
told him enough was enough
He
already done walked away with all
Of
our stuff
I
put away my cell walked over to my table
He
left another message cuz he startin his own label..
As
I sat at the table like a holyghost mouse I
Was
Mmmmesermerized and full of emmmmoootion while I sat back and
enjoyed
A
small amount of commotion
See
I was havin dinner with M’s
Marley/Marcus/Malcolm/Martin
The
waitress was so confused by all the vibes she was getting
Marcus
asked her straight up and down if we could have a space of our
Own
To
which she replied
"you
mean, in this restaurant or in this town?"
Malcolm
asked her
How
could she see with all that make up covering her natural beauty
and why wasn’t
she
proud of real kinky hair?
To
which she replied
"I
have to wear make up or I look plain my hair done gone back to
African cuz I was in
the
rain."
Marley
was slightly upset cuz there was no vegetarian dish so he asked
for some
plantains
and what was her wish?
To
which she replied
"These
days I neva really thought about my wish but I guess I would
want to get me a
new
satellite dish cuz mine is on the brinks and so I cant watch
TV…and I guess also
to
spend more time with V…that’s my daughter, she 3 and look
like me…she gonna be
just
like me."
Martin
said nothing but extended his hand
The
waitress just looked at the eyes of every man
And
there I was with all the M’s
Waiting
for the Evolution to begin
The
waitress left
And
as she walked away
She
ran her fingers through her hair
And
started wiping her make up away
Gandhi
came over and wished us peace
And
a few slaves stopped by drenched in ocean breeze
The
four girls from the bomb gently kissed me on my cheek
Still
dressed in church clothing and Sunday school speak
And
Elvis still kept callin my cellie
Leaving
me numeric messages of urgency
Last
thing he said was he was makin a movie
Bout
the return of his legend
And
that it was groovy
I
left quietly
And
tossed out my cell phone
And
the M’s told me to
Live
the movement, be the movement, spread the movement as I
journeyed home . . .
* * *
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