El Salvador,
Thirty-three,
On New Year’s Day,
A child is born
And christened, Alicia,
Meaning in English:
“Of noble character”.
16 of 800, as a percentage, is two,
And, as a young woman, she was one,
At MIT, added to their number,
And John Forbes Nash Jr.
Was her irrational Other;
The manifold genius,
As complex and elusive as
Equilibrium,
And as handsome a bundle of fibre
As a girl could hope to reconcile.
“Devotion” is a word not much used these days,
To a Catholic, it’s “an expression of love and fidelity”;
And, “commitment” means something else entirely,
When your husband is diagnosed
Schizophrenic
And then, by addition, for perdition,
Your son.
Shakespeare’s mercy is one thing-
Twice blessed- it’s true
But true compassion
Is double its worth,
Reckoning on no reciprocation,
Ergo, a perfect
Analogy for love.
So, the Laureate’s true genius was surely to find
Alicia Esther Larde Lopez-Harrison,
Because the only thing greater than a beautiful mind
Is the grace of a generous, compassionate companion.
~ Stephen Lang
El Salvador
John Ogden Nash Jr (Nobel Laureate and schizophrenia sufferer), and his devoted wife Alicia, died together in a tragic car crash on the New Jersey Turnpike, on May 23rd, five years ago today.