Bread for the King
Memphis, Tenn, 2001


“When the King was in this city,
the streets flowed with electricity.”
He lays a hand on the red marble.
Broken, in a black glove.

The African from the eastern desert
Took me to a tomb.
An image, black and grey,
Crackles on a wall.
The King, dancing, laughing,
ecstatic and unsure.

Beneath the pyramid
he tells me how he beats his son,
for not knowing how to bake bread
or worship the King.

He cries.
Tells me how a boy with a silver gun
made his body dance
with five bullets
then run through the streets
of their city.


* Dennis Muchmore is a retired teacher. He adds that he was involved in various art/musical enterprises during 60's & 70's – is now writing and painting again. (Good ...Ed)