THE MATADOR

The last I saw of him was on the final neurasthenic afternoon of his harmonica

When he lost his hair and said I did this to him with my grief,

As the pink halo of a monk’s scalp began to shine up through his own.

My grief can cause male-pattern baldness in a man!

                         This was his voyage, remember now, not mine.

In my own life’s journey, I once found him, many laters, bewitched

Into a tiny iron matador (he wore a hat) on the folding table at a yard sale

In a small New England town, holding out

                         His midge of scarf—ridiculous and red,

Now overwrought with aching from the wind in Spain.

                                        When was it that you say I knew?