poem: rushmore cat

Pops
blowing his chops at
The Colored Waif's Home
for Boys, the pastoral
poetry of racism,
fireworks in his mouth
& his horn,
blowing hots
by the number,
Bolden by the wayside
Oliver in Chi-town
summoning the new
King, Bessie's
new mule wagon,
splaying the beat
out for barbecue,
butterbeans,
& sop, this chessman
angered by none other
than the need to blow
home, blow harm,
blow past the
snickering attempts
to carve him
a different Rushmore:
Cat was subversive
to his dying day,
all 9 of them
& counting.