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Callaloo 23.4 (2000) 1325-1327



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Hey man

Tim Seibles


. . . this is Talib. You knew me
as Teddy Winborne. When you
get a chance, call me back.
Long distance. Three calls.
Three messages. Like this.
Me and Teddy had grown up together--
listening to Hendrix, playing basketball,
here and there pretending to be Bruce Lee.
(It had been twenty-some years since "Fists of Fury.")

Teddy had become Talibdeen Bahar,
a Muslim who ran a small insurance office.

We had never called each other long distance.

When we were teenagers
he would say things to his mom
that would have cost me my life.

___________

We used to take the XH bus to school. The Germantown High   girls
always got on with their foxy legs in fish-net stockings.
We tried to be cool. I mean, we
weren't scared. We'd say    Hey baby,
you know    it would be a    really
dynamite thing    if you and me could maybe
find some time to    lay, play, and parlay. [End Page 1325]
I guess we were scared, but
we were young brothers in Philly
back in the day of The Dells and The Chi-Lites--
La-la la-la la-la lalala means--
you had to have some lines
like a bridge of silk between you and the girls.

___________

Late 60's, early 70's.
So glad to be black.
Barbers gave us blow-outs
to make our 'fros bigger.
Gangs: Dogtown, Haines Street, 12th n' Oxford, The Clang . . .
When somebody said "Whereyoufrom"
it meant which corner.

___________

I'm 40, starting to go bald.
I get back to Virginia and find 3 messages
from Talibdeen Bahar,
the once upon a time Theodore Winborne,
who used to play bass loud on his porch,
who had a girlfriend that
nobody ever saw,
who used to shadow his face with a scowl
because you couldn't be "down around the way"
beaming like Wally and The Beaver--
you'd've got your ass kicked every day.
And we didn't want that. We wanted to be hard.
We wore high-top Cons with silk-and-wool slacks,
copped a Philly stroll, said "Hey, man, fuck all that."
We thought it would just go on
and on--yockin,' boppin'--with us
cooler by the hour . . . [End Page 1326]
The ol'heads turned us in about sex and
some of us had already tripped the catch
on a bra strap. Soon we'd be bonafide
Casanovas, hittin' every house-party,
watchin' the pannies fly.

___________

So, I'm an
inch from calling
him back but the
phone rings my
mother says a
man shot
Teddy yesterday
walked into his
office and something
about $88
killed him
paper said Wednesday
blood covered his
chair and some of the floor.

___________

Once, I saw him and Gary jam this mean blues in Melvin's basement.
We were all around 15. Summer. It was hot down there--
like the inside of a fat man's sweat pants.
Cooke flipped into Hendrix, squeezing big howls
from that small guitar. Teddy still played bass
with his thumb, but did some sweet walkin'.
I wonder what Talibdeen Bahar wanted to tell me.
He was bow-legged.
He used to wear baggy khakies.
He was the color of a Hershey's kiss.



Tim Seibles teaches creative writing at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and is the author of five collections of poetry, including, most recently, Hammerlock. His poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies.

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