Robert Pinsky(b. 1940)
V. Physical Comparison With Professors And Others
Pink and a bit soft-bodied, with a somewhat jazzy,
Middle-class bathing suit and sandy sideburns, to me
He looked from the back like one more professor.
And from the front, too—the boyish, unformed carriage
Which foreigners always note in American men, combined
As in a professor with that liberal, quizzical,
Articulate gaze so unlike the more focused, more
Tolerant expression worn by a man of action (surgeon,
Salesman, athlete). On closer inspection was there,
Perhaps, a self-satisfied or benign air, a studied
Gentleness toward the child whose hand he held loosely
Absurd to speculate; but then—the woman saw something.