Being a Model

An old friend said if I didn't have anything
better to do, I should see the photographer.
I didn't have anything, and he was sitting

in an old schoolroom. He said he was taking shots
for magazine adverts all over the world,
had already shot a hundred or more actors

that very morning, and he rolled his eyes.
He looked me over, with and without glasses,
and said I could be somebody. I could run

a bookstore maybe. He wanted to shoot me leaning
forward and looking straight into his lens
and click click click again through an atmosphere

chalky with lessons passed and failed for years
and click click click I could be a kind of professor
or somebody trying to think hard about something.

He made quick notes. He said I'd be on file.
He'd be in touch. It might be all of a week
or maybe never. I said I'd keep him in mind.

Copyright © 2007 David Wagoner All rights reserved
from Margie
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission