Marvin

On a “wet back” trip near Oxford,
Helping to establish man’s presence
By digging ditches and looking for bones,
Marvin stopped work unable to breath.

We spoke 40 years earlier of “Alice In Wonderland”,
The CPA office he was then joining.
Like me he had come from New York City to Oahu
I would be his first boss.

Not a typical big firm CPA office
My first client had been a taxi shop.
Their office featured a slack key guitar
And enough Mary Jane to open distribution.

Despite Marvin’s Harvard Law credentials
I thought he was grounded,
Likeable and thoughtful, slightly burden by beliefs,
Yet capable of laughing at himself.

He was a perfect Stanley to my Livingstone,
Possessing few of my less charming traits,
OK, he seemed to believe in god.
But, I could be forgiving.

We could finish each others sentences, but never did,
Recognizing the need to listen.
Never talked baseball, he was from the Bronx.
Not a Dodger fan.

Marvin moved two years later,
We never really parted, spoke every week
Saw one another regularly,
Always stepping easily into each other’s psyche.

We’d explored Europe together
And he was anxious to join Diana and me
In search of another’s holy grail,
Human teeth in a Wooly Mammoth’s graveyard.

Ten years after Oxford
I wish I could tell him of my latest idiocy,
Listen to his outrage
And laugh about the human condition.