Margie Shaheed, SANOBIA MOORE

               "S./a|No.bi>a," image by Daniel Y. Harris & Irene Koronas

“Mailman, mailman, do yo’ duty

Here comes a lady wida African booty

She can do pom-poms

She can do splits

Ah betcha $5 she caint do dis”

SANOBIA MOORE*

People come to the bar for different reasons—to drink
and socialize and dance to the loudest jukebox in town

They come swearing by

the ranting of a particular DJ

who will have them

jumping from their seats

singing and popping fingers,

clapping their hands

He plays all the right songs

at the right time, all night long, and they sweat

Some come to fellowship

where you’ll find teachers, PhDs

and lawyers pitching cartwheels

with preachers, pimps, poets and whores

Some people come just to talk loud—

they can’t do it anywhere else

People come here to pick up somebody new 

to squeeze them tightly into next morning’s light

They come to hawk their wares

Some people come to show off their clothes

sparkling pinky fingers erect

Some folks don’t drink alcohol at all

they come to tell lies, learn about the truth,

talk politics, and turn religion on its side

They come to do crossword puzzles

People come to meditate, to share good news,

talk themselves whole, to heal whatever’s ailing them—

it’s cheaper than paying for a doctor

Some come to show off vacation photos

They come to eat hot fish dinners on Friday night

or pass out cigars when a new baby is born

Some people come to see if they left

their cell phones last night

They come when syllables grow dull and flat

in their mouths—when words are not easily found

They come to show off their children’s straight A

report cards; they are proud
Some are simply on a drug run…

But when they come to Barry’s Corner Bar and Grill

on Tuesday nights they come just to watch

Sanobia Moore’s big, fine, round ass

as she struts it back and forth on high-heeled shoes

She is a bar star
The original rump shaker

Men come from near and far

follow her around from bar to bar

to be entertained by those

hefty luscious hips

Wipe the cobwebs out of your eyes!

Her voluptuous hips are the ease

of movement on a playground swing

She is the Hottentot Venus

on display for all to see—

difference is her fleshy buttocks

shatters the walls of cages

The one thing that can hold down

these hips almighty is tight fabric

and they fight against that too

these hips are meant to be free

Now, it’s a well-known fact

when she steps behind the bar 

the eyeballs of men pop out of their sockets

roll across the floor and anchor themselves

to her feet where they quickly

turn their gaze to 180 degrees

As part of the act, she gets one

of her girls to collect money

for the jukebox, and tells

her to play Prince’s “Sexy Motherfucker”

When the music starts,

she picks one lucky guy

to rub her behind up-against

his firm thighs knowing full damn well

it will move him from stasis to motion

make him vibrate, shake and cry

Especially as he watches her walk away

slinging her wide ass from left to right

Sanobia, the original rump shaker,
has the crowd exactly where she wants them

She tosses up a bottle of liquor
catches it mid-air
and slams it down on the bar all in one stroke

Cocks her mouth to the side,

and with her Louisville accent she shouts,

“Where all mah boyz at cuz Ah wonah give ‘em
a hit of dis thang!”

They holler out answering her in unison,
“Heah we is!” 

Her ass is the main attraction and she knows it—she loves it

she invites attention to take a seat in the front row

The men cheer her on as she pastes her red painted hands

on her tiny waist held together by thick black leather

further accentuating her mountain of an ass

She bends over just wide enough

to give spectators a proper right view

she turns around winks at the crowd

and dares anyone to climb on

And there you have it—her ass—shining in the spotlight

as she shamelessly wiggles and jiggles it

winding her behind round and round

in a full clockwise circle

Overcome, one man points his finger at her

and screams out what everybody’s thinking,

“Man, you see that gurl shakin’ her big o’ ass like dat?”

The men go wild

She smiles

With that she stands straight up

parks her ass on her high-heeled shoes

Swoops up a hand full

of shot glasses from the top shelf

slams down one in front

of each man present

She knows, as she works the bar

her booty churns out the notes

of a booming crescendo

and is the source of all African rhythms

She dances, plays and prances

She stops to pour a shot of liquor

for each man and puts it on her personal tab

As etiquette has it

no one drinks from his glass

until the last man’s shot is poured

But not before Sanobia picks up the cowbell
waves it loudly in the air,

and announces at the top of her lungs,
“Alluv the boyz in the bar jus’ hada drink
on Sanobia Moore! Ah don’t know why but y’all
got me feelin’ a lil’ freaky up in heah tonite so
Ah jus’ had to give alluv y’all a hit of dis thang!”

The men rush to their feet clapping thunder, cheering,

blowing whistles and catcalls through their teeth

and the cash register rings all night long…

People come to the bar for different reasons—to drink
and socialize and dance to the loudest jukebox in town

But when they come to Barry’s Corner Bar and Grill

on Tuesday nights they come just to watch

Sanobia Moore’s big, fine, round ass

as she struts it back and forth on high-heeled shoes!

—Margie Shaheed

*Sanobia Moore, was originally published in the anthology, LipSmack 2 (NightBallet Press 2013)