Writing UNAPOLOGETICALLY from the Soul Up
Here's an all-time old-time favorite...
Entertain Me (first published inside Atlóta © 2003 RYCJ)
Totally took me out,
ran chills up and down my spine,
if I had a cape when I first saw them,
I would have flown like Tarzan
right out of a window,
mimicking monkey see, monkey do
throwing up a glass, hailing this one is for you.
But I didn't,
I'm not crazy, can't be hoodwinked,
into seeing flesh as it comes,
even up on a throne,
in any other aspect than a human one.
Entertain me, entertain me
that's all I want you to do,
let my eyes run like a river with tears,
let me cry laughing for years.
All snared in Dragnet,
fenced in Big Momma's House
sitting at the Nutty Professor's dinner table
like Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Raising Arizona and Guarding Tess,
High-jacking Hollywood, sucking on Sour Grapes
screaming my head off at Rush Hour
thinking I ain't got Nothing to Lose.
What's the Worse that Can Happen,
a Scary Movie, a Honeymoon in Vegas,
or Amos and Andrew,
mimicking the Family Man,
or Ruthless People?
Come on with it,
let's have a House Party, or two, or three or four...
cause I'm Gonna Get You Sucka,
and this is for sure.
My Cousin Vinny,
gonna have to peel me up off the floor.
A marvelous craving,
an awesome God raving saving grace,
as you too must understand and know,
this is just a show. I mean,
thank God for fast forward and rewind, you know.
Just as I'd die of longing
if I couldn't watch the Zel
in a Devil in a Blue Dress
strut his stuff, a story all in itself to tell.
Have you ever really, really looked
at that man's strut?
Girl, what.
Oh yes, the Zel⎯He Got Game,
is Courage Under Fire, A Soldier's Story,
Power, and the closet I've yet seen on screen
to Malcolm X.
And hey, “I'm your Huckleberry...”
let me replay Tombstone,
like Glory and the Posse,
my favorite Westerns from the silvery past;
and closer to heart, the most defining war-heart-jerker,
sob-stroker,
was Pearl Harbor, both the original and the re-make
as was JFK, and God Bless
the letters home from Vietnam,
Dear America.
But hold me, keep me
here come tears of entirely another sense
as I hold on to the tissue box flinching
whimpering and leaping out,
to pinch, scratch, kick and bite
all those vixens and villains.
Took me years to look at the Glover
after the Color Purple,
and that's right Angela, burn that shit up
and sell what's left for a dollar,
talking about looking for JD's Revenge.
Yes lovelies, go on and Set it Off
as Tina put it,
What's Love Got to do with it,
for sure, as Rules of Engagement cite:
It's A Time to Kill, I'm talking a 187.
Two Can Play that Game,
but noooo, oh noooo
Cooley High
I cried my heart out for both Hank and the Zel
in Philadelphia.
And dark humor,
can't nothing get any darker than Fargo.
I'm talking laughed so hard,
back to the floor, legs up in the air
bike peddling wondering why
others was looking at me lopsided,
until someone tapped me on the shoulder
and said,
hey, that saga was for real.
Well damn, I say
please, please, tell me no, no, it ain't so
that script surely has to
beat all definitions of dark humor I know.
I mean damn⎯you know!
But inspiration, sing-a-long
talking about knowing
every jagged word
in a movie's song,
put on Shaft,
or Sparkle,
or School Daze,
or...
and I'm a little embarrassed to say,
put on Scarface,
and it'll be like a grand 'ole opera
up in the place.
Just in love with being entertained,
I'm saying,
caress me softly
with a little Poetic Justice
and Purple Rain,
chase and hunt me down
like Jackie Brown,
feed me some Chestnutt,
oh, excuse me,
I mean feed me some Soul Food,
and whip up some of Eve's Bayou.
Come on and spank me Bad Boys,
let me see a Blue Streak,
cause Baby Boy, Boomerang,
It's a Thin Line Between Love & Hate,
what a Low Down Dirty Shame,
but like I said, ain't nobody to blame,
for it's just a movie,
and only there to entertain.
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