Neo-Folklore

A Neo-Folklore

By Ahmos ZuBolton II

she plays little sally walker

got her hands on her hips

men in her mind

she plays sapphire

and old lady shine.

i leave my footprints on the door.

she is standing in the yard

with her hair in knots,

i do her a cakewalk

she calls me lying lips

and country.

i play the possum for her

get a job as a minstrel

with a traveling poetry show.

i make it a scene on the big city stage,

send her high-heel sneakers,

she does me a gris-gris with a drink

in her hand.

she orders me to dance allnight,

in late hour wine time with watermelon on my breath,

i teach her to boogie-woogie, she show me how

to limbo-rock on a bedspread.

Source: Open Places, No.29 (Spring 1980)

It is likely that the "sally walker' of Zu-Bolton refers to the children's song of play, in which one version is found in Marcus Bruce Christian's "I am New Orleans" :

"Green grass-tuh, green grass-tuh--how green duh grass grow!

All over, all over, it seems to be so!

Miss Walker, Miss Walker, your true love is dead;

He sent you a letter to turn back your head."

Ahmos Zu-Bolton (1935-2005) -- Born in Poplarville, Mississippi, Zu-Bolton is the author of A Niggered Amen (Solo Press, 1976), a collection of poetry, and coeditor of Synergy: D.C. Anthology. he was the founder and editor of HooDoo magazine, and has taught fiction and folklore at the Galveston Arts Center, Xavier University, Delgado College, and was Tulane University's first Writer-in-Residence.

For several years he operated his own publishing firm, Energy Earth Communications. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and in the anthologies Giant Talk, Mississippi Writers: Reflections of Childhood and Youth, Vol. III, and Black Southern Voices: An Anthology of Fiction Poetry, Drama, NonFiction, and Critical Essays (1992). In addition to operating a community bookstore, ZuBolton frequently writes for the Louisiana Weekly.

Photo above: Ahmos ZuBolton II and Haryette Mullen