Doppelgangers

Here's an imagined family album of (mostly) photos of my uncle.

             Doppelgangers

                        1.

When my young Uncle Doug dresses

as Santa for my first grade class,

he decides to visit the next room

and meets a second Santa there.

                        2.

Posed in his football uniform,

he looks like the Heisman Trophy.

Poised on crutches, he looks like

Paul Newman in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

                        3.

Here’s Uncle Doug in naval uniform,

with rows and rows of midshipmen

before he left Annapolis.

Here’s Uncle Doug in coat and tie with

rows and rows of new Ford employees

before his promotions began.

                       4.

Back when everyone wore the same

tennis whites, my uncle stands with

Arthur Ashe as he hosts the Ford

tournament at Hilton Head.

                       5.

As his son Doug grows up,

he looks more and more like

his father, and his father looks

less and less like himself

though they still play tennis,

dress whites in the twilight.

  

                     6.

One patient dresses like another.

The hospital robes are standard issue.

So’s the liver cancer – as those greedy

cells keep doubling, doubling, doubling

until he was done.