Poetic License – Albany
Wild Life
(Ursus maritimus)
by Barbara Ungar
Go out to scatter bread crumbs
for the birds, see the snout
of a polar bear sticking
out of the snow—I’m standing
on its back! & there’s another
beside it, & another—
seven in a row, no,
three rows of seven—
twenty-one polar bears
tucked under the snow
asleep side by side
filling the whole back yard
like blintzes in a pan
or stepping stones
I could hop across
to the end of the world