Crabtown Observed #6: Footlong Franks Goes Too Soon

The poetic stuntman David “Footlong” Franks was found dead in his Fells Point apartment the second week of January, not long before his 62nd birthday. He was honored in an especially poignant obituary by Arthur Hirsch in the Baltimore Sun on January 17th, 2010.

David Franks holding a photo of David Franks. Thanksgiving weekend, 2005

In late November of 2005, as Franks recovered from lung cancer brought on by heavy smoking, I visited his apartment in an old barbershop at the corner of Bank and Regester streets in Fells Point with Thanksgiving leftovers from my mother.

On November 29, I received this note from David.

I sent your mother a thank-you — it was the best Thanksgiving food I’ve had since my mother cooked for family & guests & she was a great cook.

Thank you for being so thoughtful & bringing it over — I had enough for another delicious meal yesterday which is a GREAT treat for me.

What do you do about eating? You’re one of my only friends that also lives alone.  That’s not really important – what is important is if we can get together again soon & do some more reading (ourselves & others), talking . . . let me know what your time is like…

When you were here, I read poems and you read from your journals. They were personal [entries] & I happen to love personal essays & journals & letters — always have. Sometimes it’s a matter of finding out how other writers felt, but really the lowly “journal” is also where I find so much THAT I can relate to about being alive, even though it is not my life.

Sometimes it shows me other ways of seeing things that are part of my life (in their presence or absence) that I haven’t seen until then . . .

Love, David

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