Poetry Alert: Mojo's back in town (for Edward Dorn)
Mojo's back in town, down in the basement where the elevator won't go.
Mojo lives below the chute where they once delivered coal
to heat up the building.
Mojo remembers Charlie Parker heating up downtown Kansas City.
Mojo rapped and sang before King Pleasure came to town.
Mojo knew Truman was up to no good before he bombed Japan.
Mojo played chess with Black Panthers.
Mojo knew KC's Police Chief Clarence Kelley was corrupt
even before he sold guns to the Minutemen,
even before he became head of Nixon's FBI.
Mojo had the first goatee in the neighborhood.
Mojo sucked down baby back ribs on opening day at Gates' Bar-B-Que.
Mojo saw Satchel Paige wave his team into the dugout one steamy afternoon at Municipal Stadium, and then struck out the side.
Mojo's father owned the Army/Navy store in downtown Lawrence.
Mojo's mother bakes pies for Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.
Mojo introduced Gordon Parks to Langston Hughes.
Mojo played Ginsberg to a draw
in an LSD-saturated three-day game of Monopoly.
Mojo never wrote to tell us he had left.
Mojo never left a message on anyone's answering machine.
He didn't send a fax and he won't use e-mail.
It will never be Mojo-dot-com.
Mojo's got com-ic timing;
Mojo's got com-mon sense;
Mojo's got com-edy in his blood.
When Mojo's home, he's got com-pany.
Mojo's back in town, down in the basement,
fixing sandwiches for hip hoppers in the neighborhood,
and who ever slides through looking for their spot down in the basement.