Ney

Each semester from
1969 until I retired in 2015
I met my students at the Ney
Museum in Austin so they could
Experience a woman a hundred
Years ahead of her time who
Was the foremost sculptor
Of Texas in 1900 who had
Kept her maiden name
And tried and failed
To sculpt her two
Sons a Texas
Tragedy in
Flesh and
Marble.
I told
My students
How Ney had
Broken her second
Son Lorne whom she
Forced to pose for her
But who had turned his
Head causing the sculpture
To be called the young violinist
But who ran off to marry a girl
Ney disapproved of causing
Lorne to join Teddy’s Rough
Riders and who later was
A drunk breaking into
His dead mother’s
Austin home to
Steal art to
Sell for
Whisky money
Resulting in Ney’s
Lady friends buying
The house and turning
It into the Ney
Museum.
As I told this
Story each semester
In the Ney Museum on a
Saturday afternoon there
Was always a nervous mother
Accompanying their son
Who looked at me
Reflectively
Wondering if she
Might be like
Ney trying
To sculpt
Flesh.