The boy the others teased
all through elementary school
for his angel-cake pallor and Coke-bottle glasses
has returned as an albino alligator. I saw him
last week in the science museum’s pool,
where he was basking on a heated rock,
all four legs slumped back to expose
the pearly pink pads of his uncalloused feet.
His eyes were pink, too—and still near-sighted.
Dian Duchin Reed is the author of Medusa Discovers Styling Gel (Finishing Line Press, 2009). Recent poems appear in Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, Nimrod International Journal, and Poetry East. She has been the recipient of a Sundberg Family grant for literary criticism, the Mel Tuohey Award for writing excellence, and the Mary Lonnberg Smith Award in Poetry.
Currently, she is translating the 2,500-year-old Daodejing from the Chinese into English poetry for a 21st-century reader.
Her website is dianduchinreed.com.
