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In Memory of Brian Donovan<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1939-2013<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Always \u2013 perhaps not always \u2013 you were genial<\/p>\n In imitation of now-gone personalities, perhaps<\/p>\n Drunk \u2013 that described person \u2013 and yourself, so<\/p>\n Much that it hurt to laugh, although strong beer<\/p>\n Gives a hint of perfection, jollity while standing<\/p>\n At the bar, not sitting \u2013 that would be passive<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So that when recounting a quiver of passivity,<\/p>\n It was \u201cup\u201d the humor, quick as booze, standing<\/p>\n Or sitting, the wit had a lure of more than beer,<\/p>\n But whipping humor brought forth dexterously, so<\/p>\n Ironic, sharp, pointed as a stiletto, perhaps<\/p>\n Gone in the past, your New York roots genial<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But observant as a professor of the past in a genial<\/p>\n Mood bought through alcohol, not always, perhaps<\/p>\n Not as mirthless as a desert or stone, so<\/p>\n Rampant is the need for lightness, froth through beer<\/p>\n If only in the brain, distorted pose while standing,<\/p>\n Drinking, elbows of the raconteur, not passive.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The opposite of vocative is not always passive,<\/p>\n Nor are the cymbals of talk had through standing<\/p>\n Alone, but with company. There, Brian, beer or no beer,<\/p>\n You were without peer, as if learnedness, a Ph.D. so<\/p>\n Unambitious could get you loved, possibly, perhaps,<\/p>\n But you said: \u201cI\u2019m not marriageable.\u201d Still genial,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As if an aura of bachelor knighthood was your genial<\/p>\n Flag, no misogyny intended, you remained perhaps<\/p>\n The embodiment of time concealed, not yet forty, so<\/p>\n Unconcerned with time passing, not a reader, the beer<\/p>\n Of career goals \u2013 you were indifferent, as if standing<\/p>\n At the bar, reconciling the past could remake the passive,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The instance, now that your dissertation left passive,<\/p>\n Undecided, \u201can open question\u201d \u2013 sitting or standing,<\/p>\n With a bloody mary or hops distilled as expensive beer,<\/p>\n The wraparound of years when I first knew you, so<\/p>\n Elemental in manner, undisturbed, I thought, perhaps<\/p>\n Keeping close to one\u2019s home was more congenial.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Two weeks ago, was it, perhaps three, the genus of time<\/p>\n So forgotten, beer or wine, sitting, standing, hardly passive \u2013<\/p>\n & then your heart expired in hospital, Wednesday evening last.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n