Purely Academic
“It's acceptable to be ignorant but not acceptable to make a mistake.” Japanese Proverb
1. I planned on nursing.
“Follow Titchener!”, you said.
“Join the alliance
of arts, science, and letters.”
I started the path you cleared.
2. It is difficult
to sound sincerely grateful
for gratis gifts
of insight and instruction.
A formal hug upon sight
confirmed the shape of function.
3. I wanted to please
to study Primitive Art
to mimic the Wasps
those sophisticated girls
drinking wine from Steuben glass.
Your Greek Bronze Coins honored civilization's relics.
4. Ours was a Wabi Sabi relationship
impermanent, shadowy, flawed.
I tried to set a price on it
like a feminine Japanese portrait
never judging it's value.
You taught me to write
in the academic form
of Aichi's model.
Following your way
the long path was shorter
because of culture.
Koshima monkeys
washing grainy potatoes
risk-takers taking the lead.
High Priest's Sand Bringing
collected from monkeys' hands.
5. Overtly brazen
marginally intimate
independent mien.
“A notably large volume,
we'll weed out each mistake.”
If Jasper had lived
would these games have driven him home?
Would he have succumbed to your covert malady?
6. You disrespected
a scholar by your appropriation.
Stored in your cases
my beautiful specimens
name never tagged.
Two times by great men
princes of fieldwork
collections preserved.
Was it theft or convention?
Did you think I'd not notice?
Was it blind reflex?
Were I your son
would you have grieved
a reputation harmed?
It's only tough luck
laws unbroken
rituals at work.
7. Your wife at my door,
long blonde hair
short blue dress
seeking my husband
l a female bee-eater
forgoing the helper role
a Kenyan matriarch
whose son's wife cooks.
She left, you imploded
embracing necessity like a woman.
8. You say you are great
honored for publications
destined to endure
but is this legacy sufficient
to outweigh your losses?
9. The Elephant House
where you kissed her playfully
sheltered dying breeds.
10. No hay problema.
I won't hold it against you.
What you share with them
matters not at all.
In life as in statistics
difference is everything
and a genome is pathways removed
from the face that harbors it.
Were I young again,
your reputation would matter naught.
11. Impeccable restraint
in the manner of Empire.
Attention to detail
in the manner of homeland.
A lifetime following Hakone T
halting only to taste the snows of Kanagawa
to touch the pine trees of Aichi.
