Poems by Michele Lent Hirsch

Conjoin

by Michele Lent Hirsch

From Canary Fall 2014

Michele lives and writes between Brooklyn's Prospect Park Lake, scattered with at-risk ducks and geese, and the Gowanus Canal, a heavily polluted estuary.

There is a single clear pane between
the World’s Largest Reptile
and me.

A sign warns Please Don’t Tap
but you know each person here can imagine
the glass vanished entirely.

And what would happen in that moment,
in that terrible wonderful moment before
panic?

Charged air would spin and bounce between
two species — both muscle-tense,
both trembling —

and I wonder if the crocodile might rest a while
uncaged, watching only, seeing us
finally seeing him.