That Guy

Thursday when I got to class a student told me about a portrait he had done on the city bus on the way home the day before. I said really? Can I see it? Sure, he said, and reached into his black shoulder bag to dig out his sketchbook. I could tell that he'd been hoping I'd want to look. The drawing was of a face of a burly guy with a crooked mouth and a scruffy beard, wearing a wool cap with his hair covering his ears. I said I love it, everyone has seen a guy like this. It's "That Guy!" We laughed, and I tried to imagine him sitting on the bus and drawing this total stranger. Maybe I'll bring in a book of Reginald Marsh's art and show him the drawings of people on subways and guys passed out on the street.