Hadrian’s Beard

Reportedly, the first worn by an Emperor.

One who liked erudite arguments

which his foes in dispute often lost.

Who surely intended that the beard,

evoking so many hirsute Greek sages,

would lend him a philosopher's gravity.

Or, not. Perhaps it covered

some disfiguring scar or blemish

the way a large mustache hid

the herpes sores a friend acquired

in a careless act in a Tehran brothel

and then learned to live with as many do

without philosophy to console him.