The Story of Lester and the Gold Coin
The Story of Lester and the Gold Coin
When Lester was a young man he was very tall and very strong
And his hands, lots of people said, had the grip on one of those constrictor snakes
Now one day he found a shiny coin and an old old book that was hand written
Now Lester, he knew the bible, cause his mother made him go to church
And then stay even after the Sunday service to go to bible school
So Lester knew that the book that he found was copied mostly from the bible
And yet things were changed lines were scratched out and new lines were put in
And even those were scratched out and changed again
Enough so that Lester couldn't even read most of it
And that that he could he couldn't make hid nor hair of
And that gold coin that he found it had one year written up on one side
And another year written up on the other
At first Lester didn't know what to make of that
Now he went on in life and he married a good woman
And her name was Cora and Cora grew to be a big fat woman
They didn't have any children
Now both Lester and Cora they worked for a white lady
And her name was Misses Plainfield
Cora did the work inside the house
And Lester did the work outside the house
And every so often when the sun was shining hot
And sweat was pouring down Lester's face
He would take out that shiny coin (it always stayed shiny)
He'd take it out of his pants pocket and he'd hold it up in the sun
And he'd wonder real hard about what it meant
He had lost the book years ago and he was real sorry about that
Now when Cora died the church people buried her in the churchyard
Cause they said that she was an extra righteous woman
And rightfully ought to have her place there
It wasn't soon after the funeral that Lester took out the gold coin
Now he knew that the year on the front was this very year
But it wasn't right until then that he noticed that the year on the back
Was the year that dear old Cora was born
And now Lester's just an old man
He's too old really to work
But he still goes to Misses Plainfield's house almost every day
And he finds something to do
It isn't because he has to
And it isn't even because he wants to
It's because he's scared of god
Writer/s: Jay Bolotin
