#milk shakin mama
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spilladabalia ¡ 1 year ago
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Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks on Flip Wilson
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Milk Shakin' Mama
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queen-asante ¡ 7 years ago
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ejucated immigrant
((AUTHOR’S NOTE: @eene-fangirl For the Fanfiction Weekend Challenge! I should probably wait to post this for Rolf Appreciation Month, but there’s a lot of Jonny backstory/headcanons in here, so I thought it would count. Basically, it’s a poem from Rolf’s POV but it’s technically about Jonny, or rather, Jonny was my muse for this.
I haven’t written a poem in Rolf’s ‘’voice’’ since 2014 but believe it or not, that one little line that Edd says in ‘’A Case of Ed’’ inspired the poem (you know, the one), and as I was reading Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf, it produced said result. A turnip for your thoughts? I don’t normally write Rolf like this, it’s actually more like Rolf emulating Ntozake Shange for those familiar with her style. As an Indian Immigrant girl who’s considered suicide, that book changed my life, she’s my idol. Hence, the poem is written in ebonics and all lower case to pay homage to Shange (and I consciously dropped third person redundancies, it wasn’t a mistake). Three non-EEnE characters are briefly mentioned: the first one is Vanessa, my friend who’s half African-American and half Haitian. The second one is Ice, who belongs to my friend, Dani. Ice, in her world, is a black and white cat who becomes Double D’s pet. Rolf fears him because he’s not only black and white, but he shares the name of Immigration and Customs Enforcement by pure coincidence. Dani didn’t plan this, as she created Ice before she met me but she liked the idea of giving Rolf a reason to fear the cat, and so we came up with that story together. The third one is Dr. Feelgood who was my therapist, it’s not her real name, it was an affectionate nickname I coined for her in my years battling Bipolar Disorder Type 3.
As a closing thought, much apologies for the length, also tumblr’s going to mess up the format.))
‘’ejucated immigrant’’
dear gods,
i be 14 wit skin as rough as treebark & hands dat look old
i waz the dark skined immigrant wanting to bathe in bleach
Brown Black / Blue Black / Amber Beige / Bister Brick Bronze / Chestnut Chocolate Cinnamin
Copper / Drab / Dust / Ginger / Fawn / Ochre / Coffe Colourd Caramel
Tawny / Terra-Cotta / Henna / Sepia / Umbre
lookin in the thesurus eddward wit two ds give me when i come to dis country
everything spell Brown but nothing spell White
White sound nice like pearl like snow like milk like golden skined white skined light skined
honey dipped / lemon kissed / but begging for ivory / fair frosted silvery ashen boy jimmy
your white hands on my brown skin
i waz the dark skined immigrant botherin to drag you round
you stand there like a closed mouth statue & you insult my way of life
think you know everythin / rolf just some ignorant third world peasant or somethin
but we be livin dis way longer than the foundin of your land
your country young my country old
numbers & poppy / it just to give you illegitimately born breeds of donkeys
somethin to hee-haw over / science say there no gods either but who know dat
you cannot contain lightning bugs in a jar
i waz the dark skined immigrant dreamin of shakin the mr presidents hand
the former mr president wit eyes like a tired old man & Brown his Brown like a mud bath
it really too bad you know / rolf like your former president
dat black man who dont check dixtionaries for validation of his blackness
he not so bad / he waz sympathetic to the plight of the immigrant but his hands tied
not blame him / he not god he not have all the power in the world to fix dis weather
dis cloud dat hang over your land & who the hell is perfect?
it really such a shame / i dream to see the Hill / see the pearly house painted white the place where he live meet him shake his large brown hand / one brown hand to another
cept i not black / rolf not have to be / not pass / rolf european he is white not bloodless
he not pass he not be white enough for your country
cept i be white on the inside look coloured on the out but i aint no coloured
under my skin i am more than a colour
whoever herd of white passing for person of colour
but suddenly i get to dis country & i be treated no different than jonny
so alls i got is coloured dreams
poor grate nano lived & died on silly dreams / well they not exist
there be only reality & reality not kind to the dark skined indigenous immigrant
no one know what i supposed to be / take a wild guess
indian pakistani mexican romani rolf herd it all & none suppose right
they only looking at my face / the outside the outside not matter
cuz i waz the dark skined immigrant not italian not irish but the other kinds
& no one will see unless rolf cut open his veins & bleed
a Wood Nymph have my colour & if i check off the box dat say caucasian i get a funny look
from the lady sittin behind the counter wit the yellow nail polish & beaded eyeglass
spose if jonny do the same they wont believe him neither
jonny be good
yous see him dancin / wearin his stomach out / dark skined bare feet / swayin his hips
& grate thin arms but he not care dat he gots splinters in his fingertips
his nails turnin all black & blue & those chapped lips look like eyes starin out atchu
the gods make dis child the way he is
wit skinted knees & all & elbows pointed outwards readin you like a map
always wit the label on the left side
but he bootiful & he know it / beauty sometime come in the empty coffee can
not in the paper lillies or plastic pearls
you cant make a silk purse from a sows ear / even if dat ear be made of wood
of wood widda crayon drawn smile
jonnys mother the madwoman in the attic
rolf be certain jonny the wood boy some kind of elf from the passage of ValhĂśll
the mother of the Tree Sprite she not like rolf / well she not like any child it seems
weepy jimmy-boy & rolf invited to jonny-boys abode for a meeting of the Urban Rangers
& tho his mother never says so we feel she not like us very well
she never ast us to stay for lunch
even tho rolf personally would not eat a morsel of what these people eat
& we always been so polite to her but still she build walls
rolf believe she jealous of us becuz jonny likes us
she come out to the parlour / barefoot / flowers in her wild tangled mess of black raven hair
like yoko ono & wearing a long paisley skirt / she bootiful in an earthy sort of way
but she has a wild look in her eyes like a tigress
a violently insane expression like a german vampire dat make rolf think of bertha mason
she looms over her son like a dark older sister becuz they look so alike
altho her skin much darker / a deep chocolate brown / her complexion remind rolf of vanessa maybe she is haitian / she like the demon in nanas stories the one we all have widdin us
who comes out when we try too hard to be good children
she look at white as snow jimmy & myself like she disprove
either she not like us the uniforms or both
rolf forget tho these hippies wit their anti-establishment
they think every uniform represents what jonny calls ‘’the Man’’ & dats what it is rolf think
she not want jonny in the organisation
becuz she think it goes against their opposition to social norms
rolf could tell she wanted to ast us to leave / she not like jonny spending so much time wit us
becuz then he not at home meditating wit her or whatever it is they do
jonnys family is strange / they not eat meat & walk around shoeless
rolf has been called a gypsy by the children at school but flower child jonny seem to rolf more of a gypsy if there ever waz such a thing
he is almost ethereal / his family must be from a clan of faeries the kind nana warns rolf about but brown-skinned jonny seem harmless enough
i watch his mama put a daisy in the pocket of his jeans
i not know if his daddy be white or black but what difference does dat make
rolf understand it is important for a child to love their family no matter their faults
i know The Giving Tree still love his mother
even if she would prefer him to leave the Urban Rangers
of us three jimmy be the whitest of white jonny the blackest of black & i somewhere in between
but any one of us can walk into a puerto rican bar & start speakin spanish
& no one would know what we are
race too complicated & people too narrow minded / want everything boxed in
one day we waz layin on dat grassy knoll / jonny & i
where the trees whisper to us & we whisper back
cuz you know the boy talk to trees & i listen to his voice / & i be lookin at our hands you see
cuz we waz layin inches apart a flower between us & i tuck it behind his ear
then i look & see my skin only one shade lighter than his
tho the sun make me browner than i really be
out in the sun for hours & hours plowing & plowing the fields
by sundown i roasted coffee bean brown / as black as the inside of a chimney
& if i stumble into town any passing stranger would think i waz Black i mean African
id have to stay out of the sun for days to get my old colour black lest i wander round wit only the whites of my eyes visible on my sun burnt dyed rust brown brown skin
& hair so course youd suppose it come off a horses ass
lookin more like an American Indian than a White
i holdin the back of my hand up to jonnys now
how bout dat two brown hands one dark & one light but whos to say i not be a dark white & he not a light skined brown
dont you dare tell me what i am & am not
bitch dis aint no south africa where yous all can reassign us based on what you think
i aint no sandra laing but sometime i wouldnt mind bein black if it meant for you to leave me be
in fact ill gladly be whatever you want me to be but i am what i am
not black enough for black not white enough for white so what am i?
dont box me into Black & White / cuz in dis world brother dat not exist
im sorry as hell but i gettin real tired of bein called
an illegal / an alien / a wop / a gypsy / a guinea / a brownie whatever you want to call us
all your bigoted slurs clumping us together like we one & the same
dat fine but papers or no papers not define who i am
so uncle sam can take it & shove it
welcome to america!
i be having a long love affair wit your country & people
i also be having a war wit em
mama told me there are limits for dark skined immigrants stuck in dis light skined first world
we come over the border wit all the rest of them
wit all them people from central & south america
wit all them refugees from africa & asia
guess what we blend right in we look no different
look just like any other brown faced ‘’illegal alien’’
border patrol take one look at us & think we just like the rest
cuz yesterdays europeans are todays mexicans & middle easterners
coloured Sons of Shepherds gots few chances
what it like to be bilingual / to speak in two tounge
ah but to be fluent in one & not the other tryin to find any definishun in the dixtionary
in which i drop third person redunduncies cuz i only one person not three
& i only speak two language
you speak spanish?
no habla inglĂŠs
you speak english?
i dont speak spanish
one day the hat & head as one edd boy say oh rolf! youre so unejucated!
i think my ears deseeve me but i know what i herd
i wish to strike his milk honey cheeks full of nonsense
& say to him i am the ejucated immigrant you be warned about
dont talk to me bout ejucashun
i sale cross the oshun
i wash up on your shore
i lern another language
it wasnt easy
what you know bout ejucashun
all you know come from books & theories
at least i know where i stand
you are a child & i am old old old my hands notted thick wit veins like the roots of a tree
you say i sound angry / yea i angry but not as angry as you
cuz there nothing they fear more than a minority who knows what up
i used to be fraid but not no more
i used to fear the plainclothes agents in Black & White uniform
of immigration & customes enforecement / of ICE police
of eddwards Black & White cat name Ice on ICE
he must be making fool out of me to call a domesticated beast after homeland security
a cat in uniform because the gods make him so not by choice
like there be some purpose to it / i waz the dark skined immigrant you made fun of
i see what they do to the undocumented immigrant on the telly  
but now i not be fraid / becuz you cant touch me
so the grapefruit widda red ugly mouth & bleached hair sit in office now
damming all them people from ‘’shithole countries’’ / just as well but we here to stay
it not what i ast for but no use fighting it
& i will gladly pull the bookmarks from my english dixtionary
the one double d edd boy give me
no longer will i bathe in bleach / only use to washing dishes & floors
i not some bloody floor
‘’immigrant’’
at least i can spell dat  / i look it up in the dixtionary
websters dixtionary / who the hell is webster?
but now it marked up used copy wit yellow post it notes
i use it a lot to lern your tounge
i not smart but i sho as hell not unejucated / papa can tell me dat
i be in your country in first place to reseeve ‘’best ejucashun’’ like grate nano wanted
grate nano waz an adventurer / a dreamer wit big goals
he travell far & wide seeking fame & fortune
when he a very young boy immigrants from every cesspool in western & eastern europe set sale for The North / it waz always grate nanos dream to travel North
everyone say he more insane than a bovine wit mad cows disease
there no room in dis life for dreams they tell him / he prove our village wrong
when rolf eight years of age grate nano briefly left the Old Country to set sale for america
everyone say he be too old / he never too old for dreams
he wanted to find dat American Dream he hear so often about
spoken wit fondness by the tinkers who visit our land
he returned from his valiant voyage wit stories about what he seen
in the North  he said everyone has cars & money & television & running water
no one listen / The North the North they say dat is all you ever talk about
he waz a man who dreamed of a new life for his family & so he decided to send for us
& make a better life for ourselves after the plagues of the land had haunted our family for years grate nano promised us america he said youll soon be eating apple pie from off a china plate white picket fence / coca cola / santa clause / marilyn monroe / empire state building
it sound like a fairytale he spun a legend dat the streets waz paved wit gold
& we believed him for shining in grate nanos eye waz a dream & so here we are
rest his soul he wanted so much to buy us light & sun & clean wind of the oshun
‘’immigrant’’ waz a new word for rolf when he first come here
did not know after hearing the stories from grate nano dat he would soon be one himself
rolf not know what dat mean & still really dont
the dixtionary definishun say \ ˈi-mə-grənt \ noun. a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence
\ ˈi-mə-ˌgrāt \ verb. [to go or remove into; in, into, and migrate, to remove.]
to come into a new country, region, or environment in order to settle there: opposed to emigrate.
oh sorry dat definishun not say we unclean people / flea invested vermin
sickly serpents who not speak english / greaser / sheenie
contagions of american society / incredibly dirty tramps fresh off the boat
so pervasive / such nonwhite filth / staring back at pitch black faces
not blonde haired & blue eyed / nonwhite skin only fit for dirt & waste work
mama papa kiss me goodbye i going to haiti
but it is what rolf is now it part of his identity just as much as the colour of his skin
just as much as bein a pagan / just as much as bein a male
just as much as bein the Son of a Shepherd
now rolf a new man living in the New World
i am an immigrant
sometime i wish i waz shug avery / bootiful fictional dark skin harlem singer
half man half woman / wit my large glittering masculine thighs i make an animal of men
maybe i have the courtesan complex
so i ast dr feelgood what my diag-nonsense
& she say poor soul you suffer from Stressed Shepherd Syndrome
okay so we all crazy in one way or another / it alright for some
of a mannequin in tears / of personal prejudices
im an unejucated farm boy from No Mans Land
im a poet who write in english
neisatnaf i isatnaf ne / ttim tetrejh dem gnyalp re lesgnel og gem tolrof nuh
rettenremmos i sirb ne mos rav ed / gem etlatrof nuh dro retsem nadrovh
etted tal eddejks rofrovh? / enneh lit gem trekided gej og enneh teksnø etrejh ttim
senneh enenyoø üs gej etted tla eddejks rofrovh
& this is for Sons of Shepherds who have considered suicide
fin
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thesofthuman ¡ 8 years ago
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here’s another one of my favorite playlists (yellow flowers):
aretha franklin: respect, chain of fools the beatles: come together, something, oh! darling, she came in through the bathroom window, i want to hold your hand, all my loving, eight days a week, don’t let me down  billie holiday: what a little moonlight can do bo diddley: you bo diddley, crackin’ up, pretty thing, who do you love chuck berry: johnny b. goode, run around, oh louisiana, thirty days the coasters: poison ivy, young blood elmore james: dust my broom elvis presely: can’t help falling in love, love me, milkcow blues boogie, fever, reconsider baby, hound dog, all shook up, heartbreak hotel, jailhouse rock, don’t be cruel, (let me be your) teddy bear, love me tender, stuck on you, i gotta know, good luck charm, that’s all right, lawdy miss clawdy, playing for keeps etta james: i just want to make love to you, hawg for ya, something’s got a hold on me, i’d rather go blind fats domino: ain’t that a shame, goin’ home, something’s wrong, all by myself, my blue heaven fleetwood mac: rhiannon, love that burns four tops: i can’t help myself (sugar pie, honey bunch) gene vincent: be-bop-a-lula gino washington: like my baby howlin’ wolf: smokestack lightnin’, how many more years, shake for me, killing floor, down in the bottom, the wolf is at your door, howlin’ wolf boogie, back door man james brown: try me jimmy reed: baby what you want me to do john lee hooker: boom boom johnny & santo: sleepwalk the kinks: long tall shorty, i’m a hog for you baby kokomo arnold: milk cow blues little richard: true fine mama little walter: my babe little willie john: you hurt me, need your love so bad, i’m shakin’, my love is marvin gaye: let’s get it on, hope i don’t get my heart broke, sexual healing mickley & sylvia: love is strange the mighty hannibal: the right to love you muddy waters: got my mojo working otis redding: (sittin’ on) the dick of the bay, i’ve been loving you too long, stand by me, these arms of mine, pain in my heart patsy cline: crazy, i love you so much it hurts, leavin’ on your mind, walkin’ after midnight, sweet dreams (of you), so wrong, back in baby’s arms, she’s got you, blue moon of kentucky, three cigarettes - in an ashtray, i fall to pieces, heartaches, why can’t he be you percy sledge: you really got a hold on me, when a man loves a woman, my adorable one ray charles: georgia on my mind, a fool for you, i’ve got a woman, ring of fire, what’d i say robert johnson: me and the devil blues ronnie dyson: i don’t wanna cry sam cooke: (ain’t that) good news, you send me, chain gang, bring it on home to me screamin’ jay hawkins: i put a spell on you the shirelles: mama said, will you love me tomorrow solomon burke: can’t nobody love you sonny boy williamson: help me  stevie wonder: superstition taj mahal: chainey do, shady grove, johnny too bad, statesboro blues the temptations: just my imagination (running away with me) timothy wilson: got to find a new love
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sylvie-in-the-sky ¡ 8 years ago
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saturdays + lavender (condensed milk) lattes 🌿☕️ @homesf • • what's shakin' this saturday? T and I are about to get our barre burn on at my favorite barre studio @avantbarre with my @fashionmamas SF crew and fierce founder @nataliealcala ❤ • • this fitness mama is about to slip into my new @athleta gear and T is excited to play with all the @modernblocks while we work it out with the awesome avant barre ladies. 💪🏽🔥 • • what's your Saturday filled with today? Lovely lattes? Rainbow sprinkles donuts? A feel good workout? Or a day in the snow with your loves? Here's to a wonderful weekend, wherever you are. 😘 #darlingweekend #butfirstcoffee (at Home Cafe)
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creepydix ¡ 12 years ago
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Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks - Milk Shakin' Mama 1972
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