Taking the Cure

My father’s picture hangs in the music building.

 

Second row, not cavalier tall,

mouth frozen around a hole–

he posed for 1931.

I tap on the glass to get his attention.

 

Does the young

man know me

across the dripping greens the

same mouth the converted

marble tearooms?

 

He stares acres above

any courtyard

trying

to make the connection…

 

In the foyer

only a bust of John Hay

has broken through,

his nose rubbed gold

by local myths of luck

endlessly unearthing

a burnished stately

drunk

belting down the years

with no hands taking

the cure.

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