De La Soul

He’s dancing to De La Soul with his son
and thinks back to Steve
the cool boy in school.

Steve was a new boy.
“Today there’s a new boy in class”
the teacher announced.
“Oh fucking hell” everyone thought
reaffirming their friendship with their friends

but it turned out Steve was cool.
His mum was American!
“Steve’s mum’s American!”
Steve can play basketball!

“Who are they?” everyone asked on non-school uniform day
pointing at Steve’s De La Soul t-shirt as exotic
as the tales of the year he lived in Chicago.
He spent that night making De La Soul tapes
for everyone on his table.

They all went to their first festival that summer,
then again the next year; plans to do it annually
diminished as university arrived
they all went their separate ways
and he hasn’t been to a festival since
but now he’s dancing to De La Soul with his son
who’s got ear protectors on and an Elmo t-shirt,
who’s fascinated by the two funny men jumping around
on the big screens.
Hip hop meets Sesame Street.

He picks him up so he can see the stage
he's dancing to De La Soul with his boy on his shoulders
singing along to every word
just like that first time he saw them live
at Brixton Academy
his first week living in London
he ended up going home with Natasha
who he met in the coat queue.

Natasha and her housemate were both barmaids
in the coolest pub in town and that started
a year of pills and gigs
Natasha’s Peugout 205 showing him a new world
until one morning he woke up and realised
this had to end. He got a job
a good one.
The recruitment agent said it was the best one all week.
The first thing he bought as soon as he owned his own house
was the best hi fi in Dixons
so he could play De La Soul

and having his son on his shoulders didn’t stop him dancing
he had co-ordination.
Seven fields away having a Bloody Mary
was the little boy’s mum.
“There’s no way I’m watching fucking De La Soul.”
He’s tried so hard to convert her
on long car journeys and on nights in
when they moved in together and their CD collections merged:
“You’ll love them! Just give them a chance!”
until that moment he realised there was no point trying anymore

and it meant that at the festival
he could take the boy to go and watch
De La Soul. Just the two of them
he put him on the ground and they both jumped up and down
and his son had no idea that to his dad this meant the whole world.
Every single lyric and beat evoking
a patch of pavement where he first heard the song
on his headphones on his paper round
or in Natasha’s car driving to Cornwall
cos her mate was having a party
and as De La Soul say this is their last song
it means one last dance and he knows
what they’ll listen to in the car on the way home.
A new person to convert.