Chicagoetry: Barshomba And The Green Bunny

BARSHOMBA AND THE GREEN BUNNY

"Yeah, man," Mr. DeFourneaux began,
"Me and Barshomba had
the One Love Peace
Band.

You heard of the Chitlin'
Circuit? South Side, you know,
Bonanza, Peppers,
Rock, Castle Rock,

Checkmate, the Green Bunny?
77th and Halsted in the
early '70s. South Side,
you know: Sam Cooke,
Herbie Hancock, Ramsay

Lewis, Minnie Riperton.
Barshomba had dreads
down to his ass, you know.
You heard of

Haile Selassie? (FUCK
yeah, man, I'm hip to
Haile. JAH RASTAFARI!). Anyway, I was wearin'
dashikis, had an afro

(DUDE: I GOTTA see a picture
of you with an afro!)
Anyway, we was goin' to the
Green Bunny to do a gig,

cuz we hard Marvin Gaye
liked to hang out there after
his shows. I was playin'
marimbas, timables,

congas, bongos, man,
we're loadin' all this shit
it two cars. We get to
the Green Bunny and - man,

I ain't goan lie - the motherfucker
was CLOSED, man, and I mean
FOR GOOD. I was like 'God-
DAY-UM ain't that a bitch!

Well, after awhile, I shaved
off my 'fro, and I don't think
Barshomba liked that, cuz I only
saw him one mo' thyme after

Bob Marley opened for the Stones
at the Stadium, you know,
Barshomba was hangin' backstage
with Bunny Wailer - you know

Bunny Wailer? (Fuck YEAH
I'm hip to Bunny). Well,
anyways, we was also playin'
with Sons of Slum, Bosco, the
Sparkle Plenty Gypsy Band,

they had Chaka Khan playin'
drums with a double-bass, man,
she was BAD, man, you know,
like Twinkie Floorwood from

Funkadelic? Then Chaka hooked
up with Helicopter, then finally
got up with, man, what was the name
of that band? (Rufus, bro.) RIGHT,

man, Rufus, and she had
that big hit, uh, what was
it? 'Tell Me Somethin' Good,'
MAN, they was BAD, you know.

Yeah, we had some good times
until I shaved off that 'fro,
man, yeah, man, ha ha ha . . . "

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J. J. Tindall is the Beachwood's poet-in-residence. He can reached at jjtindall@yahoo.com. Chicagoetry is an exclusive Beachwood collection-in-progress.