Career Highlight

There’s a poster on the wall

Beside the elevator

For Felicity. Keri

Russell beams out, curly haired,

From it. Some melancholy

Associated with this—

The loneliness of this year,

Maybe, that dreary lobby,

The confined circumstances,

Loss of partner, loss of car,

Loss of most adult status,

All for a return to school

Among students more the age

Of this TV character—

Would ever after adhere

To that name, Felicity.

That’s what he tells her, at least,

His first friend in this new world,

Midway-aged from him to her

On the poster, and also

Curly haired, a grad student

Radiating confidence,

With a Navy officer

For a boyfriend, a nice house

In the Avenues, and plans

To turn promising fieldwork

Into a brilliant career,

No idea yet that grad school

Itself might be the apex

Of academic success

For her, as Felicity

Was for Keri Russell’s fame.

The worst part about the past

Is how it clings to sadness

By clinging to its future.

At least, that’s what he tells her.