I was so happy when Mickey Rooney
showed up in The Black Stallion, 1978.
It had been awhile and there he was
with his hello, folks! face gone serious,
still warm and visually, believably wise.
Clarence Muse drove a horse and wagon.
Pauline Kael, the film critic, wrote that
being black, Clarence Muse was
a spiritual stereotype, a limiting code.
I get it but I liked seeing him, anyway.
Muse was born in 1899. In 1976
he played “Snapper” in Car Wash.
This poem is now over because soon
as I write “Car Wash,” the portable
stereo that is my brain sings “Workin’
at the car wash, yeah” and that’s that.
Just as well. Thoughts of Ms. Kael
bring to mind that atrocity Noah which
situates Mount Ararat in Middle Earth
where everyone’s white and crusty.
Trust me or I’ll have to quote Kael
who called Russell Crowe a slab
of a man (Gladiator 2002) and God
frowns on bad-mouthing. The End.