no way a guy saw a rhino
and drew it like this

covered in plate armor
tribal adornments, feathers
and rings. he must have gotten

his information from story
before a stone made it science

— I remember coach Aker 
calling me soccer queer 
running seven miles

while the football players
watched tapes of themselves

I’d go back to class all
sweaty, or wet from rain
I’d wonder about the girls

I’d think of them in a way that 
was like sketching from memory

looking back now is like 
seeing an early drawing
of an animal

the octopus with vertical
pupils, the juggernaut

rhinoceros, that 
up-close flea. is what I think
I am supposed to be?