• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Features
    • Message from the Dean
    • Remembering Peter Munk ( 1927-2018)
    • Munk School takes on the world
    • Planning for a Better Toronto
    • A Decade of the Dunlap Institute
    • K-Pop fuels Korean studies
    • Poem: Mary Germaine
    • A hand of friendship for Syrian newcomers
    • Trading a telescope for a microscope
    • Going WAY Down Under to look up into space
    • The Last Will and Testament of James Nicholson
  • Profiles
    • The Obligations of Being First
    • Spotlight on Students: Agnieszka Łaszczuk
    • Spotlight on Students: Saambavi Mano
    • Spotlight on Students: Tony Wu
  • Donors
    • Campaign Update 2018
    • Donor List 2018
    • S is for Steadfast: The Salamander Foundation
    • Ure rumheortan freondas – Our magnanimous friends
    • A love story begets a generous gift
    • Philanthropy gets an early start
    • A Philanthropist’s Succession Plan
    • Arts & Science Faculty And Staff
  • Volunteers
    • By the Numbers 2017-2018
    • Mentor: Julie Chan
    • Mentee: Brian Leiper
    • That Chrysalis Moment: Mentorship at U of T
  • Archives
  • Download
    • Download the Report (2018)
    • Download the Report (2017)
    • Download the Report (2016)

The ArtSci Effect

Your Philanthropy in Action 2017/18

The Look On Your Face When You Learn They Make Antacids Out Of Marble

The Look On Your Face When You Learn They Make Antacids Out Of Marble

Poem by Mary Germaine

Who knows the name of the empire that took your arms, or the earthquake
that left you to climb your way, legless, to the top of the rubble.

Only your lucky friends became mosaics. Others
were ground to composites for IKEA Kitchen countertops.

Of course, you have had some work done: two iron
posts replaced your iliac crest, oh, it was centuries

ago. And more recently, you were endowed prosthetic arms
reaching the whole length of the breathless hall gallery. Reclining,

you charge the light, and the light adheres. You wink
with every inch for the people milling past.

As I turn to go, you archly say, Hey. Don’t let
the grind get you down, babe. And I think I see

something else sputter and dissolve in your clean cut throat.
In the museum restaurant, a man finishes a spicy lunch.

He takes out a corner of your mouth, or maybe half your formidable
brow (who knows?) chews it up and leaves a bit of foil on the table.


ABOUT THE POET

Mary Germaine studied philosophy at Memorial University of Newfoundland before moving back to Toronto for her MA in English in the field of Creative Writing. Her work can be read in Riddle Fence 27 and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the Adam Penn Gilders Scholarship in Creative Writing, which was established by Adam’s family and friends in his memory to support and encourage emerging poets, fiction writers and playwrights at the University of Toronto.

Footer

  • DOWNLOAD THE REPORT
  • MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN
  • CONTACT
  • DONATE TO ARTS & SCIENCE
Donor Love

Logos
Office of Advancement, Faculty of Arts & Science, University of Toronto · www.alumni.artsci.utoronto.ca · Copyright © 2021 · Log in
Website by Pixel Studioz