WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.540 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.540 --> 00:00:05.460 align:middle line:84% So when I talked to my son, he told me 00:00:05.460 --> 00:00:07.980 align:middle line:84% that there was an old guy who would wake up 00:00:07.980 --> 00:00:10.800 align:middle line:84% in the middle of the night and sing, 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:14.250 align:middle line:84% but he would only sing like one really long note, 00:00:14.250 --> 00:00:19.020 align:middle line:84% like (SINGING), kind of gospelly and bluesy and stuff. 00:00:19.020 --> 00:00:23.970 align:middle line:84% And his name was Willie, but they 00:00:23.970 --> 00:00:25.155 align:middle line:90% called him Lonesome Willie. 00:00:25.155 --> 00:00:35.530 align:middle line:90% 00:00:35.530 --> 00:00:39.130 align:middle line:84% The poem is called "In the Middle of the Night Lonesome 00:00:39.130 --> 00:00:42.790 align:middle line:84% Willie Opens His Mouth to Sing One Long, Keyless, Perfectly 00:00:42.790 --> 00:00:43.600 align:middle line:90% Ugly Note." 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:50.230 align:middle line:90% 00:00:50.230 --> 00:00:53.620 align:middle line:84% "Which should upset the cell block, but doesn't. 00:00:53.620 --> 00:00:57.190 align:middle line:84% That lonesome boy unlooses a grand, exalted stank, 00:00:57.190 --> 00:00:59.440 align:middle line:84% an undone edge that rollicks that block. 00:00:59.440 --> 00:01:02.710 align:middle line:84% And that note say just one just one thing, 00:01:02.710 --> 00:01:06.310 align:middle line:84% sizzling slide and edge snatch, gaping screen on a Mississippi 00:01:06.310 --> 00:01:06.850 align:middle line:90% door. 00:01:06.850 --> 00:01:09.280 align:middle line:84% My dearest bellowed, lord have mercy, Willie! 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:11.440 align:middle line:84% Close that door before them flies come in. 00:01:11.440 --> 00:01:14.830 align:middle line:84% Alleys of rust in the way an old man flap-mouth kisses. 00:01:14.830 --> 00:01:16.960 align:middle line:84% Stove top sagging with scarred pots 00:01:16.960 --> 00:01:21.010 align:middle line:84% crammed with the grayer dubious parts of fig. 00:01:21.010 --> 00:01:24.400 align:middle line:84% Barely Dee Jelly jelly jars brimming sweet slosh 00:01:24.400 --> 00:01:26.860 align:middle line:84% of hard brown water served suppers 00:01:26.860 --> 00:01:30.650 align:middle line:84% that just may be not all the way unplucked. 00:01:30.650 --> 00:01:34.820 align:middle line:84% Willie dreams that old dance, leg tangle leg, Chi Town juke, 00:01:34.820 --> 00:01:38.110 align:middle line:84% sipping all his sweet silver, and Franklin, Aretha, 00:01:38.110 --> 00:01:39.550 align:middle line:90% and Hooker John Lee. 00:01:39.550 --> 00:01:42.380 align:middle line:84% Colored folks got a right particular English, 00:01:42.380 --> 00:01:45.370 align:middle line:84% ash as a skin color, and nose as a landscape. 00:01:45.370 --> 00:01:46.840 align:middle line:90% West side, best side. 00:01:46.840 --> 00:01:50.200 align:middle line:84% Scratched 45s on reject, reject mixtapes, 00:01:50.200 --> 00:01:53.020 align:middle line:84% crammed with Willie's sure-fire coochie songs, 00:01:53.020 --> 00:01:55.990 align:middle line:84% wound and rewound with that number 2 pencil. 00:01:55.990 --> 00:01:57.730 align:middle line:84% Month-old grease getting its skin 00:01:57.730 --> 00:01:59.320 align:middle line:90% on in that jar by the sink. 00:01:59.320 --> 00:02:02.890 align:middle line:84% 8-hour Negro funerals and Carnival to the rafters. 00:02:02.890 --> 00:02:05.140 align:middle line:84% Furious wag drooping the dance floor. 00:02:05.140 --> 00:02:06.910 align:middle line:90% Ain't no way on Saturday night. 00:02:06.910 --> 00:02:09.370 align:middle line:84% Ain't no way, but one on Sunday morning. 00:02:09.370 --> 00:02:12.610 align:middle line:84% Rotten molars and drooping balls and ER aspirin, 00:02:12.610 --> 00:02:15.400 align:middle line:84% Lonesome chewing on toothpicks all damn day. 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:17.950 align:middle line:84% Nobody talking out loud about lips and noses. 00:02:17.950 --> 00:02:19.570 align:middle line:90% Bop and back that ass up. 00:02:19.570 --> 00:02:21.970 align:middle line:84% Borders and boundaries that stay trembling. 00:02:21.970 --> 00:02:24.700 align:middle line:84% Under soul, overwhelmed, dog-tired aunties 00:02:24.700 --> 00:02:27.160 align:middle line:84% in that 6:00 AM chitlin assembly line. 00:02:27.160 --> 00:02:29.110 align:middle line:84% Three times around under hot water. 00:02:29.110 --> 00:02:32.290 align:middle line:84% Unapologetic hogs heading [INAUDIBLE],, and hard 00:02:32.290 --> 00:02:33.400 align:middle line:90% fried chicken skin. 00:02:33.400 --> 00:02:35.380 align:middle line:90% And we just like it in public. 00:02:35.380 --> 00:02:38.060 align:middle line:84% The way your skin smells before somebody really, 00:02:38.060 --> 00:02:41.320 align:middle line:84% really knows it, and that sweet stink after it's been loved on. 00:02:41.320 --> 00:02:43.600 align:middle line:84% Slow grind against the bathroom wall. 00:02:43.600 --> 00:02:45.220 align:middle line:90% Playlists cracking your belly. 00:02:45.220 --> 00:02:46.540 align:middle line:90% The limp in your pimp walk. 00:02:46.540 --> 00:02:48.550 align:middle line:84% The idling motor in your Cadillac. 00:02:48.550 --> 00:02:49.840 align:middle line:90% Backhand slap. 00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:51.550 align:middle line:90% Bandana do sweat it flat. 00:02:51.550 --> 00:02:53.200 align:middle line:90% War is all over the TV. 00:02:53.200 --> 00:02:57.010 align:middle line:84% Temptation, miracle, supreme, dead David Ruffin, 00:02:57.010 --> 00:03:00.010 align:middle line:84% and where did Koko Taylor pull that voice up from? 00:03:00.010 --> 00:03:03.520 align:middle line:84% Sharkskin slacks, lavender, alligator kicks, juice denim, 00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:06.610 align:middle line:84% butt crack had its birth in the ravaged black body. 00:03:06.610 --> 00:03:08.890 align:middle line:84% It slip-slides through a peculiar blood. 00:03:08.890 --> 00:03:09.580 align:middle line:90% Turns out. 00:03:09.580 --> 00:03:10.570 align:middle line:90% Jump back, baby. 00:03:10.570 --> 00:03:11.230 align:middle line:90% Jump back. 00:03:11.230 --> 00:03:14.080 align:middle line:84% Dimmed pink by the Tallahatchie, a bodega 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:16.390 align:middle line:84% and Baptist blood of four hours in the middle 00:03:16.390 --> 00:03:17.290 align:middle line:90% of the damn street. 00:03:17.290 --> 00:03:18.370 align:middle line:90% Ferguson blood. 00:03:18.370 --> 00:03:19.390 align:middle line:90% Jump back, baby. 00:03:19.390 --> 00:03:20.020 align:middle line:90% Jump back. 00:03:20.020 --> 00:03:20.950 align:middle line:90% Jump back, baby. 00:03:20.950 --> 00:03:21.550 align:middle line:90% Jump back. 00:03:21.550 --> 00:03:24.730 align:middle line:84% Hands cuffed, but suicide in the back of a police cruiser 00:03:24.730 --> 00:03:25.390 align:middle line:90% anyhow. 00:03:25.390 --> 00:03:25.890 align:middle line:90% Blood. 00:03:25.890 --> 00:03:27.580 align:middle line:90% A Cottonwood blanches blood. 00:03:27.580 --> 00:03:29.470 align:middle line:90% All the time a newborn blood. 00:03:29.470 --> 00:03:32.920 align:middle line:84% One more time, relentless, Black folk like roaches. 00:03:32.920 --> 00:03:33.747 align:middle line:90% Can't kill them. 00:03:33.747 --> 00:03:35.830 align:middle line:84% You step on them, and they throw their heads back. 00:03:35.830 --> 00:03:38.680 align:middle line:84% And all the time folks think the next step is laughter. 00:03:38.680 --> 00:03:39.430 align:middle line:90% Goddamn! 00:03:39.430 --> 00:03:41.200 align:middle line:90% Finally, Soul Train line time. 00:03:41.200 --> 00:03:43.990 align:middle line:84% Slot electric, patch cabbage, twine time, 00:03:43.990 --> 00:03:45.490 align:middle line:90% twist like you did last summer. 00:03:45.490 --> 00:03:46.480 align:middle line:90% How the body jumps. 00:03:46.480 --> 00:03:47.560 align:middle line:90% 41 bullets. 00:03:47.560 --> 00:03:50.140 align:middle line:84% How the body jumps in your grandmama's backyard. 00:03:50.140 --> 00:03:52.660 align:middle line:84% How the body jumps into its chalk outline. 00:03:52.660 --> 00:03:53.650 align:middle line:90% How the body jumps. 00:03:53.650 --> 00:03:55.150 align:middle line:90% Oh, god, a gushing wound. 00:03:55.150 --> 00:03:56.230 align:middle line:90% How the body jumps. 00:03:56.230 --> 00:03:57.520 align:middle line:90% Blue rotating light. 00:03:57.520 --> 00:03:58.450 align:middle line:90% And back road. 00:03:58.450 --> 00:03:59.560 align:middle line:90% How that body jumps. 00:03:59.560 --> 00:04:00.700 align:middle line:90% Its tagged toe. 00:04:00.700 --> 00:04:01.660 align:middle line:90% It's resilient. 00:04:01.660 --> 00:04:02.530 align:middle line:90% Its repeat. 00:04:02.530 --> 00:04:03.430 align:middle line:90% It's remixed. 00:04:03.430 --> 00:04:05.950 align:middle line:84% How that beautiful brown body jumps and jumps, 00:04:05.950 --> 00:04:10.420 align:middle line:84% dancing in a loop of that one blue lyric, 00:04:10.420 --> 00:04:13.480 align:middle line:84% growled by a sleepy jailhouse elder 00:04:13.480 --> 00:04:17.710 align:middle line:84% with a two-syllable sickness for a name." 00:04:17.710 --> 00:04:21.960 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:04:21.960 --> 00:04:23.000 align:middle line:90%