of the ladies start to dance. The
lady in green, the lady in blue, and
the lady in yellow do the pony,
the big boss line, the swim, and
the nose dive. The other ladies
dance in place.
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
whose hand waz on my thigh/ but it didn’t matter
cuz these cousins 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
bobby whispered i shd go wit him
fore they go ta cuttin
fore the police arrived
we teetered silently thru the parkin lot
no un uhuh
we didn’t know nothin bout no party
bobby started lookin at me
yeah
he started looking at me real strange
like i waz a woman or somethin/
started talkin real soft
in the backseat of that ol buick
WOW
by daybreak
i just cdnt stop grinnin.
The Dells singing “Stay” comes in
and all of the ladies except the lady
in blue join in and sing along.
lady in blue
you gave it up in a buick?
lady in yellow
yeh, and honey, it was wonderful.
lady in green
we used to do it all up in the dark
in the corners . . .