“He was cool Super-cool Ultrablack A tan/purple Had a beautiful shade He had a double natural

“He was cool
Super-cool
Ultrablack
A tan/purple
Had a beautiful shade
He had a double natural
that would put the sisters to shame
His dashikis were tailor made & his beads were imported sea shells
He was triple-hip
His tikis were hand-carved
Out of ivory
And came express from the motherland
He would greet you in Swahili and say goodbye in Yoruba
Mannnn he was so cool & intelligent
Cool-Cool, ultra cool, icebox cool, so cool his wine didn’t have to be cooled
He was air condition cool
Cool-Cool was so cool he made me cool
Cool-Cool so cool we nicknamed him refrigerator
Cool-Cool so cool he didn’t know
After Detroit, Newark, Oakland, and Chicago
We had to remind Cool-cool
that
to be black
is to be
very hot”

-Don L. Lee, 1969