Long Mamie Poems

When we watch movies from the 1930s, 1940s, and1950s and into the 1960's and see black americans mostly playing domestic servants I am offended by it, by the lack of opportunity they had, the lack...

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The Fifties were really and truly not all that square
Though that dullard Dwight D. sat in the Executive Chair
And his frumpy wife Mamie had really bad hair
Matching those dowdy, plain dresses she'd wear ...

While husbands...

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I have her nineteen fifties' Trifari
     fine costume jewelry, which I hold dear,
since my sweet mom bequeathed it all to me;
     when worn or touched, I feel...

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Latin sound, Latín Sound 
Latin all around 
and upside down 
I search for you inside of me
a Nuyorican's destiny

The beat and rhythm, 
Is it in my blood? 
This Salsa is too spicy for me
The language...

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I had a dream my Dad and I
We're hunting out on Greenwood Island
Along a trail of peppervines
Where memories and sea birds hide

Dawn is breaking, we head back
Through the morning mist we pass
A silouhetted shanty shack
A...

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Oh happy childhood
             Just full of glee
               Was a...

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I SAW AN OLD MOTHER WITH SILVERY HAIR
SHE SEEMED SO NEGLECTED BY THOSE WHO SHOULD CARE,
HER HANDS WERE ALL CALLOUSED AND WRINKLED AND OLD
A LIFE OF HARD WORK, WERE THE STORY THEY TOLD,
AND I THOUGHT...

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Back in the fifties
America seemed much calmer
McCarthy's commie blacklists
Sputnik's shocking launch
Ike's wife Mamie so sedate
That pre-historic hairdo

World War Two over
We needed some time to heal
Alan Ginsburg penned his 'Howl'
Chuck Berry goosed his walk
The West Wing...

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Motivated by growth, 

So it's hard to lose.

Incremental progress, 

Yeah that's the move. 

Little by little, 

Start expanding your views.

Little by little, 

Start enhancing your mood.

You get to choose, 




Who, 




You want to be. 




Reminds me of my hero, 

Mamie Till-Mobley.

She made a choice, 




To, 




Stand...

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Baseball cards and hula hoops
  Baloney sandwich, Campbell’s soup

Howdy Doody and Mickey Mouse
  Mamie and Ike in the White House

American Bandstand, Rock 'n Roll
  Elvis the Pelvis, Nat King Cole

Pez Dispensers and...

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Mamie Till Mobley demanded and open casket,
to let the world see,
the bloated, beaten body of her baby boy,
who was lynched in Mississippi.

His name was Emmett Till,
a 14 year old black boy, 
who came from the...

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Dainty toad girlie gave a cha-cha-cha
Her dress was lacy, and her lashes were tah-dah
You have so much lace! Said her potential mother-in-law
She was persnickety though, this mother of Thaw.

Thaw had been chasing the dainty bullfrog...

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