Craig Goodworth, Phoenix Commission (process photo), 2016
Homage to My Student From Mojave Who Now Lives in Wisconsin
I still remember you saying in class The first piece of my mother I threw away
was her hair.
how you had met Ansel Adams It must seem so unfair,
but not Robert Adams, you said, how history ends
“who was better.” with four hands whittling
And you once said out loud heirloom tomatoes
“Walker Evans for President” into the salad,
because when asked about cameras, sound of knife on butcherblock,
the technical features of a given model, how that is the only common ground
he said a camera is just a tool, any of us
as he used a thousand-dollar truly
Leica to drive a nail can hope
into the wall ever
at Yale. to share.
_______________________
Charles Hood