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