FOXY

_____

You never forget your first

 

Infatuation.

 

Mine was the big thing

Decades before 

Other honeys 

Entered the picture.

 

Soul Cinema action queen

 

Did her own stunts,

Did her own Afro,

Wasted no time

Kicking ass on the big screen.

 

First of her kind.

 

The baddest one-chick hit squad that ever hit town!

 

Mine had no issues

Getting grindhouse

Balconies and seats

Filled on Saturday nights in the 1970s.

 

She made the scene as Coffy,

Friday Foster,

Sheba, Baby--

Foxy! Superbad! Outta sight!

 

Was a rebellious prisoner 3 flicks straight:

The Big Doll House, The Big Bird Cage,

Black Mama, White Mama--

Foxy! Superbad! Outta sight!

 

Battled the Romans in The Arena

As the gladiatrix Mamawi,

Stuck it to The Man in Bucktown & Foxy Brown--

Foxy! Superbad! Outta sight!

 

She booted down the door, so many more could pass through:

Tamara Dobson, Teresa Graves, Gloria Hendry,

Jeannie Bell, Vonetta McGee, Jayne Kennedy--

Foxy! Superbad! Outta sight!

 

Her deep brown eyes

Met the male gaze

From pictures, seemed to say:

"You can look at me, but respect me--or else."

 

Of course, I was a small, twiggy boy

[ "The Starvin' Biafran", as my cousins called me ]

When all this happened.

Black America

 

Had a stone cold

Love jones for that foxy

Mocha tough mama from the movies

And I was in no ways immune.

 

You never forget your first

 

Celebrity crush.

 

Have no fear! Pam Grier is here!

__________________________

W: 11.19.21

 

[ From the book Discovery, Southern Arizona Press, 2024. ]