Zorina Frey

Candy Trips

We walk to Burger Dairy and Mr. Fresh 
for Slush Puppies, Now Laters, & Chico Sticks. 

My powdered fingertips are licked; 
coated with Jay’s Hot Stuff Barbeque Chips, 

O’ke Doke Popcorn, Little Debbie Snowballs,
wax-wrapped cherry apple pies, 

Tootsie Rolls and Laffy Taffy–all were my happy.

The Marlboro Woman whispers numbers at the counter,
counting penny candy.

My sisters get Ice cold Pepsi. 
I press the picture of the Purple Faygo can 
to chill my thirsty July tongue.

We’re red-lined walking the Black way there, 
the White way back,

rich people’s homes nestled further back from the sidewalk. 
Their living rooms and dining tables on display

through glass doors and large windows with the drapes drawn open.
We sneak a peek at their reality sitting down to eat, watching TV.

Us walking home   watching our feet 
eating sweets. 

The Fairgrounds in South Bend, Indiana 

My neighbor to the left is / The Sapient Pig, "The Only / Scholar of His Race."                              
~ The Venus Hottentot - Elizabeth Alexander

Fat Albert comes to South Bend 
showcased in a vinyl-beaten red & white-striped tent. 
My sister and I pay a few coins for red tickets. 
Fat-happy, non-threatening smile, Fat Albert has fun in his ghetto.
I want to see his Christmas-red sweater–to hear him say,
Hey, Hey, Hey!

so I can smile in my neighborhood.

He preaches this summer day as I thread through 
exposed pasty legs not tall enough to see 
over their shoulders, I pass by onlookers’elbows 
following my sister toward the baritone voice. 
He’s not smiling. 

Fat Albert sits over a chair we couldn’t see 
bordered behind a pewter fence looking

like a regular Black man, hot & sweaty. Irritated 
in his unlaundered carny incarnadine sweater
seething in humid weather berating us all for peering. 

You can see a fat Black man for free. Confined, 
you’ll bring your kids & pay a fee.

Zorina Exie Frey is an educator, publishing content writer, and spoken word poet. She is a Pushcart Prize winner, and her writings are featured in Shondaland, Chicken Soup for the Soul: I’m Speaking Now, and swamp pink. She is a Palm Beach Poetry Festival Langston Hughes Fellow and Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing Voices of Color Fellow. Her screenplay, Harley Quinn Origin, received an honorable mention at the Birmingham Film Festival in the United Kingdom. She was also a semi-finalist for the reality TV pilot Americas Next Great Author. Zorina has presented her work at the National Association for Poetry Therapy Conference, The Maryland Writers’ Association, and South Florida Writers Association. More at: https://zorina-frey.com