Poem

Legacy

Clothes Make the Man, your slogan, although Laugh

And the World Laughs With You or If You Want

Something Done Right Do It Yourself are both

applicable.  You wouldn’t object to

First Impressions Count but might be chagrined

by The Man Who Has His Health Has It All. 

You Can’t Take It With You is true enough

judging by the contents of the closet

you left behind.  You Can’t Make A Silk Purse

Out Of A Sow’s Ear, your concise, pithy

fall back position from efforts to teach

me to dress for success.  The last straw may

have been the visit to Hughes and Hatcher,

your haberdasher of choice.  You searched the

racks for a smart sport coat suitable for

a nine year old while I gawked at the birds

and monkeys captive in the two story

glass terrarium at the center of

an orbit of slacks, shirts, suits and ties.  The

monkeys were nonchalant as they sized me

up, indifferent to aphorism, smug

beasts, naked, alive, swinging from the trees.