The Literary Seminar’s Imaginary Reunion

Ubi sunt, the grad students
Who sat around that table?
The Urdu-fluent Muslim

With a professor father
Down in Savannah, Georgia?
The narrow, freckled redhead

With a professor father,
Well known, up in Michigan?
The wealthy, tall, man-eating

Floridian with a gun,
Haute couture, and proud to be
A Reagan Republican?

The wide, round-faced, frizzle-haired
Boy like a daub of white paint?
The hirsute hermit in boots?

The quiet, anxious scholar,
With a professor mother
From gracious Alabama?

The handsome Latin major
Who carried himself with hauteur?
They’re all alive, all alive

So far, despite everything,
Despite halfway becoming
What they wanted and halfway

Trying to leave. Ubi sunt
Is not the question you want,
Really, answered exactly.