Discussion: Poetry: Characters and Styles

lady in yellow

it was graduation nite & i waz the only virgin in the crowd bobby mills martin jerome & sammy yates eddie jones & randi

all cousins all the prettiest niggers in this factory town carried me out wit em

in a deep black buick smellin of thunderbird & ladies in heat we rambled from camden to mount holly laughin at the afternoon's speeches

& danglin our tassles from the rear view mirror climbin different sorta project stairs movin toward snappin beer cans &

GET IT GET IT THAT'S THE WAY TO DO IT MAMA all mercer county graduated the same nite

cosmetology secretarial pre-college autoshop & business

all us movin from mama to what ever waz out there

that nite we raced a big ol truck from the barbeque stand trying to tell him bout the party at jacqui's

where folks graduated last year waz waitin to hit it wid us

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i got drunk & cdn:t figure out whose )land waz on my thig?/ but it didn't matter cuz these )musins martin eddie Sammy jerome & bobby waz my sweethearts alternately since the seventh grade & everybody knew i always started cryin if somebody actually

tried to take advantage of me at jacqui's

ulinda mason was stickin her mouth all out while we tumbled out the buick eddie jones, waz her lickin 'stick

but i knew how to dance it got soo hot

vincent ramos puked all in the punch

& harly jumped all in tico's face cuz he was leavin for the navy in the mornin hadda kick ass so we'd all-remember how bad he waz seems like sheila & marguerite waz fraid

to get their hair turnin back so they laid up against the wall lookin almost sexy

didnt wanna sweat but me & my fellas we waz dancin

since 1963 i'd won all kinda contests wid the cousins at the POLICE ATHLETIC LEAGUE DANCES

all mercer county knew any kin to martin yates cd turn somersaults fore smokey robinson cd get a woman excited

The Dells singing "Stay" is heard

we danced doin nasty ol tricks

The lady in yellow sings along

with the Dells for a moment. The

lady in orange and the lady in blue

jump up and parody the lady in

yellow and the Dells. The lady in

.yellow stares at them. They sit down.

doin nasty ol tricks i'd been thinkin since may cuz graduation nite had to be hot

& i waz the only virgin so i hadda make like my hips waz inta some business

that way everybody thot whoever was gettin it was a older man cdnt ·run the streets wit youngsters

martin slipped his leg round my thigh

the dells bumped "stay" up & down-up & down the new carver homes WE WAZ GROWN WE WAZ FINALLY GROWN

ulinda alla sudden went crazy

went over to eddie cursin & carryin on

tearin his skin wid her nails the cousins tried to talk sense to her tried to hold her arms lissin bitch sammy went on

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bobby whispered i shd go wit him

fore they go ta cuttin

fore the police arrived

we teetered silently thru tfte\Parkin lot

noun uhuh we didn't know nothin bout no party

bobby started lookin at me

yeah he started looking at me real strange

t like i waz a woman or somethin/

started talkin real soft

in the backseat of that al buick

wow by daybreak

i just cdnt stop grinnin.

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