"Salutat"

"Salutat" is hung for viewing.

In the fight game

a salute to the crowd comes
after the gloves are pulled by attendants
from the prizefighter's fists.
Outside the ring, the featherweight

stands exhausted, saluting his acceptance
to the crowd's recognition.
The oil painting, towering

above its own dimensions

glistens under a bronzed patina

in aging lacquer as if soaked in its own sweat.

"Salutat" is hung for viewing

and it smells of blood and spit in here.

Thomas Eakins at the Crapo Gallery,
The Swain School of Design, New Bedford, Massachusetts. (1966)