Wednesday, October 14, 2015

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)