Watching Ed Sullivan

Every week in black and white on my family's first TV
it made one uneasy to see him
the former boxer so awkward,
troll-like, with a big slab of jaw, hunched over,
easy to make fun of --
the comedians mimicking him
always imitated the odd voice,
"Tonight we have a reely big shew--"
With that face made for radio and his prickly personality
one wondered how he made it big on TV.

Years later I found out that his politics
were as ugly as he was,
that he hunted Communists with fervor
and the list of performers banned from his show
usually for being "lewd" or
referring to drugs in songs
includes so many greats like
the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Bo Diddley.
Yet Ed was a pioneer
on that show that lasted 23 years;
when Bill "Bojangles" Robinson died
Sullivan paid for his funeral himself
and there is a star with this odd man's name
on the touristy Hollywood Walk of Fame.