BRUNCH WITH TWELVE BLACK PHANTOMS
This poem was republished from the book i shimmer sometimes, too (Button Poetry, 2019) Copyright © 2019 by Porsha Olayiwola. Used with permission of the author.
MALCOLM X
BIGGIE SMALLS, aka big poppa
CLEO, from set it off
AUNT JEMIMA
AALIYAH
MUFASA, king of pride lands, simba’s father
DARREN, the teen intern from the museum of science and industry who got shot the summer before he started his full-ride at northwestern
REKIA BOYD
WHITNEY HOUSTON, icon
AUDRE LORDE
JAMES BALDWIN, black expatriate
the play takes place at malcolm’s house on summer sunday near noon in the after afterlife. the air is thick and hot and you can hear someone’s mother yelling for you to stay out of the sun.
(“stay outta the sun, stay outta the sun” is a mantra echoed through the duration of the play)
the table is long and wooden with an off-white lace tablecloth curving at both sides. it’s set underneath a yellow canopy off a sodden pond. the grass is mowed and the cotton is flying high in a field to the left. trimmed sunflowers stand in two large mason jars at both ends of the table. in the center lie platters of food: “vegan mac and cheese, fresh chitterlings, fried chicken, baked chicken, barbecued chicken, gluten-free cornbread, collards, sweet potatoes glazed with honey and roasted caramel brown with marshmallows, burnt slightly like a hungman from a willow.
“the chairs all hold a body upright with the exception of four ghostless spaces in the center. the open pairs stare across at one another.
(the sun positions itself high and the stage is illuminated a golden yellow)
LORDE: (heard off stage) i keep telling this fool, i ain’t afraid. fear is a stranger same way jesus been. and what i got to keep silent for. silence ain’t never saved no one. who? show me a quiet stance and i’ll show you a grave.
(enter JAMES BALDWIN & AUDRE LORDE, arm in arm, cackling with cigarettes in their mouths)
act one, scene one