As Seth turned the corner,
one of the colored boys
under the street lamp called out.
“Wait up I’ll go down with,”
Seth slowed up, out of nowhere there was Frank,
they slapped fingers and smacked hands.
Seth thought, “Frank got some wolf in him,”
had that ability to be there all at once.
“Where you off to this late,” Frank asked
“Sneaking to meet Becky Shelton,
she’s gotten awful cute this summer don’t you think?”
“I have to steer clear of noticing white girls,”
Frank reminded.
They could see Becky’s silhouette against the moon
on the porch upstairs. “Why you sneaking?”
“Ain’t my choice, Becky’s dad wants her
to be in her wedding bed all pure and all
and she’s tired of waiting.”
“Want to play some half-court at Stonewall tomorrow?”
Frank asked. Seth agreed, “Has to be in the morning though,
picking pears after lunch,” smacking hands again
Seth watched as Frank sank into the night towards home.
Frank thought, “Ain’t that some shit, great, great-grandson
of a slave playing half-court with a great, great-grandson
of a Confederate soldier on a court named after a
General remembered for standing like a wall,
until he got shot, in a war they lost.