Five Measures of a Man


I.

He stands

like self-conscious, tall men stand—

head slightly bowed, neck shyly craned,

careful not to loom.

He meets far taller men, always,

eye-to-eye,

with seventy-one inches

of mercury.


II.

Gravity has never met him,

(this skater of fence tops)

has never troubled this dancer's boots

with the ground.


III.

His measure is taken

not in inches

but adjectives:

ferocious

mellifluous

magnanimous

illimitable.


IV.

There's nothing bantam

nothing scrappy

nothing

plucky

about this man, who is

all Lafayette

and no

Napoleon.


V.

Were he any taller

the tilt of his rough hat

would dislocate

the stars.