The Eighth Wonder
(for Robert ’03)
For once every five years for the last fifty
that’s half a century each May
I would put on my same Class Jacket
the same gray slacks same white buck shoes
go to the same old place see the same old people
but this year sciatica and senility prevented me
so I sent my jacket to my son with best wishes
for his twentieth reunion
saying I was too old too infirm
college reunions were for the young and viral
he called with his thanks
asking if I remember our first visit there together
when I related to him how my mother
would not allow my father to go to reunions
because every time they left the freeway
got on Harrison Street and drove over the lake toward campus
my father got chest pain
the closer we got to campus the worse it got she said
nostalgic pain one doctor called it
I said no I don’t recall that all I recall about that conversation
you asked me to name the seven wonders of the ancient world
and I only knew the pyramid of Giza
then somehow we got into genealogy
our family has been there in each of the last three centuries I said
the place you are now going back to
it’s a place I love a place now l will never see again
he choked and thanked me for being a mentor
he has three children
he said Dad how hard it is to be
to be like you he said
full of such love and care
a really good one
my mentor