Alien
By Rose Kantor
“Exotic Species Alert,”
reads a sign by the boathouse,
“this lake infested with milfoil.”
But here I once saw,
clinging to a tree top,
an iguana.
A crowd ringed beneath it
but none could coax the foreigner down.
If it shrieked at reaching hands, I don’t remember,
but we, in the crowd chattered on,
pointing rudely.
It was mid-summer, the tree was simple
and young,
the reptile huddled alone and far
from anything it belonged to.
A childhood fear, then,
to become the iguana.
This poem originally appeared in Manuscript, Carleton's literary magazine. Reprinted with permission from Manuscript and the author.