You remember the man

Digging through family photographs, I found a photograph of my grandfather before my mother was born. He stands with a friend in front of poster of wrestler Maurice Tillet--the man who many claim as the inspiration behind Shrek. After researching Tillet, I wrote a poem about him.


Frenchmen can be happy about everything

Credit: thehumanmarvels.com

but sad only for love.

Born 
to French parents,
a freak,
in the Russian Urals,
a physical question mark,
Maurice Tillet,
speaker of five languages,
laughed at by children
who called him La Singe,
the monkey,
laughed at by audiences
who know him as Shrek.

Ashamed,
sadness overwhelmed him, 
so he ran to the sea
to reinvent his life on the water,
where sailors, too frightened by sea monsters,
torpedos,
kamizee pilots,

do not care what you are.

Suffering

Credit: thehumanmarvels.com

from the incurable acromegaly,
no sailors spoke to the face which never smiled,
no sailor argued with Tillet,
gunner on a French destroyer,
honorably discharged,
and hired to frighten children 
away from Paris movie houses.

Discovered
by an American promoter chasing the money,
the French Angel,
with hands as big as plates,
hid from daylight 
in hotel rooms and movie theaters,
for wandering the streets caused riots
and fainting women,
because his bones thickened and misshaped 
a good man into the grotesque.

Begging
to return and fight for France,
when Hitler marched through mountains,
the Ugliest Man in the World,
rejected by the U.S. Navy,
rejected by his homeland,
would never fight for either.

Fearing

Family photo: my grandfather on the right.

a woman would see his face,
never know him,
and only desire his money,
The Angel,
never to marry,
turned over large sums 
to the French Red Cross,
visited VA hospitals,
filled a library in San Francisco
and read every book.

Harassed
by a U.S. senator,
to fight a U.S. senator for the world title,
to prove that wrestling was not fake, 
not a sham,
not an organized racket,
The Angel turned the other cheek.

Forced
to strip in the ring
to share his horrible misfortune,
to become a misshapen specimen of manhood,
Tillet earned $100,000 in one year
to be laughed at,
and shamed.

Mocked
by grown men escorting women,
Tillet made his peace with it,
found happiness in life,
speaking and eating painfully slow,
supporting twenty French war orphans,
for their entire lives,
and living his own full life,
by taking what he was given,
and turning it into a positive.

Remembered,
by those who knew him,
by those who saw beyond the skin,
as a warm, friendly man,
with intellect and compassion.

Remembered,
by those who knew him,
by those who saw beyond the skin,
as one of those rare souls
you no longer remember because of appearance.

You remember the man.