Rhinoceros Head by JR Solonche

Rhinoceros Head

He looks as though he hasn’t slept
in weeks, the brown glass eyes softly sad,
the skin beneath folded and sagged.

He wasn’t meant to be seen
from such an unnatural angle,
we down here gazing at him

up there above us on the wall.
We want to reach up and rub his chin.
We want to toss a hat onto his horn.

Sweetness, all sweetness he is,
like a great, wrinkled gray rose,
with a shark’s fin for a thorn.

by JR Solonche

Editor’s Note: Sometimes looking at a thing from an odd angle inspires insight. This poem’s direction at first seems simple, but the closing two lines contradict the easy first glance.