Michael Cluff- A Poem

 Slice of Life

Tim always
hides it away
before his office
is entered
by those
who do not understand
or won't
by innocence
or intent.

The picture frames
Roy at work
in his professor grab
of brown herringbone sports coat
black tie, brown khaki-like dress pants
and button-down blue and white striped
dress shirt, probably long-sleeved
and Tim admires the small shock
of greying hair
that divides Roy's brow in two
but only in the photo
taken four months before his death.

A man loving
another as thoroughly
as they did
is still frowned upon
by some of his colleagues
in the liberal arts college
they have taught at
for more than a half-century
combined.