Analysis of "Dr. Fauci's Smile" by Kim Stafford

 Poem Found Here: "Dr. Fauci's Smile" by Kim Stafford

I always wondered how poems that have specific people age in a poem.  This one stood out for me because of the reference to Dr. Fauci.  I wonder if this poem is read ten to fifteen years from now if it would have any impact or is this too dependent on the reference.  Also does that matter?  I think the poem plays with the idea of the future and expectation.

Now we live for the day

the good doctor can stand

at his microphone, his 

furrowed brow softening,

a modern renaissance beginning

as a wishful Mona Lisa smile

slowly ghosts his face, and he

speaks the four-beat line:

We got through it.

First note how the stanza is one sentence.  How this one sentence is playing with anticipation.  What are "we leaving for."  Ah, we're living for this specific moment for this one person, the good doctor, to say something.  The focus tightens toward the mouth as a smile is compared: Mona Lisa to Dr. Fauci -- both alluding to something positive but indescribable.  The reference to Mona Lisa's smile makes me think of people interpreting how the smile is there, and what the smiles mean.  As a reader, this in determined smile applies to Fauci who has to give some sort of news.

"We got through it."  Yes the mention is to the pandemic and, to be fair, this poem was probably published and written when the outlook of the pandemic wasn't as strong.  The saying has a feel of irony to it though as the speaker questions, "What does it take to get there?"  Just as ambiguous what "we" got through, and "what does it take."  The specifics to get there is in the poem, "Shelter in place. Lead a simple life. / Learn how little you need." These actions seem to apply to a group of people as a whole.  Each point building on the next to go more and more internal physically -- sheltering in place is pretty self explanatory -- just stay where you are.  Lead a simple life -- a more ambiguous phrase, what does this mean?  Does this matter when the stand alone line brings these ambiguities together, "Learn how little you need."

Note it's not living with little, it's learning how little you need.  Or rather the discovery of less to get through things.  And with this discovery, prepare to smile.  But the phrase becomes more and more viscerally ironic since we're not through with it currently, and prepare to smile with less and less becomes a routine disappointment.  Again, makes me wonder how this poem will be read in the future.  At face value, hope.  As irony, bitter.  Very bitter.