Former Faculty
1.
Your monograph on
Moorish influences in
Florentine mathematics was
Too hard to read
But you left behind
This great back support
Pillow gizmo
In glowing orange
2.
I didn’t like your smirk
But your chicken recipe
Remains my favorite
It’s the honey that makes it
3.
We disagreed over
Paid leave policy
But what you said about my
Black sheep brother endures
6.
You were only here for
A sabbatical year
In that time I never
Had more Negronis
5.
After the Union vote
We didn’t speak anymore
But in my garden
I still divide your irises
4.
I blackballed your tenure
You rejected my essay
We danced all night at
The Hanoi Hyatt
7.
After thirty years
On this campus you
Only had one friend
After the accident
He saved your coffee cup
And puts flowers in it
On your birthday
Only I know why
8.
No one liked the former
Department Chair Ed
But he knew how to
Unstick the lounge window
I miss Ed sometimes
On hot stuffy days
At the start of summer
When we need air
9.
I forget your name
Even though you were
Our best adjunct ever
And saved a student’s life
10.
We aren’t friends anymore
But I remember your
Best baseball shirt
And comical dog Carl
Weekends we would fish
In the stream that turned
Out to be polluted
By General Electric
You always listened
To my complaints about Ed
And turned my bitter
Pennies tails to heads
–Ticky Kennedy
Reclusive Poet in Residence
School News Today
NOTE
“Perhaps reflecting its central place in the hierarchy of American social life, Americans are now more likely to make friends at work than any other way,” The State of American Friendship: Change, Challenges, and Loss Findings from the May 2021 American Perspectives Survey.
Also Read: Bad Friends Poem