Motown Philly Back Again

We’re all pagans and shamans and clap your hands now we won’t stop the beat

We believe in divine healing and we hate to see that evening sun go down

We know when the sight of our women dressed in white each ritual night, is touching, hypnotizes

The animals blush and split for us as revival, as revealed to themselves

These are triumphant women.

Even Sister Fame hiding out in the alley turning tricks and singing verses from the undid scripture, is touching

Thank you jesus, thank you jesus, that you jesus, baby, is that you, she mutters up high between rocks and lace—his eagerness— it was all night long

Sometimes he’d interrupt a recording session to tell us about his early Motown days or expand on his views of Heaven and Hell

One time he was saying how important it was to love one’s father.

Do you love yours? I asked him

Why don’t you tell him

Why don’t you tell your father, he said

I will if you do

You go first

Copyright © 2013 by Harmony Holiday. Used with permission of the author.