daguerreotype

 

great grandpa pulls chin high

as if for a blow—derby tipped back,

eyebrows up, shirt buttoned to the collar

 

but for the smile, he’s lost in men and boys

draped over the ropes and along the ring

with fists cocked, faces chiseled and cinched

 

a wisp of sepia smoke

rises from his cigar;

his suspenders snap

as powder lights the room

Published by

Patrick Dobson

Patrick Dobson was founded in 1962. He is a writer, scholar, ironworker, and poet who lives in Kansas City, MO. He is author of two books with the University of Nebraska Press, Seldom Seen: A Journey into the Great Plains (2009) and Canoeing the Great Plains: A Missouri River Summer (May 2015). Dobson is a work in progress until termination.

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