I grew up on the Huckstable set,

Where they filmed Bill Cosby's tv show.

I had a cot in the middle of it all,

A blind spot always offscreen.

Bill would loom out larger than life

To deliver his soliloquies 

Like a dinosaur in a pop up book

Or, a big erect phallus, if you'd rather.

Felicia Rashad would whisper things between scenes to Bill,

Telling on people and getting Bill's advice

On what she should think about it

And how she should handle it all.

"They're calling us the 'Burger People!'"

She tried to tell him one day.

She said it over and over again,

But he never seemed to hear her.

I finally responded to her with another question.

"Why do they call you burger people?

Is it because you like to eat burgers,

Or is it a word play on a name

From the place that you've come from?"

She was surprised that I could talk,

That I could hear and wonder.

"I thought you were just a prop,"

She mused before she answered.

"It is a word play on our family name."

She was still trying to get Bill to hand down his decision,

When I saw the Huckstable children

Practicing their entrance through the front door.

The door was not swinging open just right,

And a set guy had to come,

And while he had it down to work on it,

I went through a gaping hole I saw

Off the set and out of the studio

Into a deserted looking parking lot 

That sat up on a hill out back.

The wind was blowing very hard,

And I had never felt it.

There was a discarded rack of sun faded swimsuits

Blowing casually on a rack.

I went and tried them on.

They were very glamorous,

And one of them almost fit me right

So I put it on and danced in the sun and the breeze.

And when I say danced

What I mean is a classy sassy high kicking number,

A mix of jazz and tap and steeped in classical ballet.

And no one saw me,

No one filmed it,

No one was there to hiss or boo

Or applaud,

And so there's never been an end to my routine.

I did a gymnastic pullover 

Right over the top bar of the fence

And danced down the other side of the hill

Through the sleek tall grasses

Blowing in the wind,

And I've danced through life

Ever since I turned the tv off 

And went outside.

-jenn