ODE TO FRANK

By Charlotte Collins Bond
11-26-1990

My skin was white
Yours was black.

        My step was spry
        Yours was slack.

                Hand in hand
                Up the path.

                        I climbed fences
                        “You done lost your senses?”

                                I ran to the stream
                                Just to hear you scream

                                        And then…

                                Hand in hand
                                Up the path.

                        A child and a man
                        In adventure land.

                You sang a song
                I hummed along.

        Coin in hand
        For the candy man

Hand in hand
Up the path.

 

Frank Segar [Ce-gar] was an old black man that lived on my grandfather's farm in a log cabin.  He helped on the farm.  Grandmother would let me walk through the woods to Mr. Fran Bond’s Country store with “Old Frank”.  There was a path where an old roadbed had been and we had to cross over barbed wire fences through a pasture. “You hold her hand now”, Grandmother would always yell to Frank.  He was very old and carried his money in a leather pouch that pulled with a string.  I’d get five pieces of candy for a penny. They had Kit’s in banana, strawberry and chocolate.  Frank would buy me a big bag full for a nickel.  I was rich!

                                                                                                                     Charlotte Collins Bond