Was a man.

Here are some words by a poet named Phillip Booth. He studied with Robert Frost at Dartmouth College, he published 10 poetry collections, and was an instructor and professor of English and of creative writing at Dartmouth College, Bowdoin College, Wellesley College, and at Syracuse University. At Syracuse he taught the great poet and short story writer Stephen Dunne. Here is a poem called "Was a man." Enjoy!

Was a man.

Was a man, was a two-
faced man, pretended
he wasn't who he was,
who, in a men's room,
faced his hung-over
face in a mirror hung
over the towel rack.
The mirror was cracked.
Shaving close in that
looking glass, he nicked
his throat, bled blue
blood, grabbed a new
towel to patch the wrong
scratch, knocked off
the mirror and, facing
himself, almost intact,
in final terror hung
the wrong face back.