I, too, was once young enough
to take giraffes for granted.
They seemed no more
marvelous than Labradors
or elms. Just one more form
among a myriad to name & know.
The older I get, the stranger
they grow. I point
at their impossible spindlelegs
& extension-ladder necks,
their staggering spots & spacecamel
faces, up there
lunching on trees: Look!
Look! I say to my son,
who shrugs, I already
saw ’em, and turns away.
Can we go look at the snakes?
This article appears in March 2015.
