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I closed my biology book.
I didn’t get to the part
about how a frog is different
from a toad. I was hoping
that I never would. I planned
to refrain from touching
either of them. I heard toads
were poisonous, the secretions
on their skin could numb your arm.
I did not believe I needed
that information to survive.
Hopefully, I wouldn’t get into any
situation where that knowledge
was a life and death matter,
like the Swiss Family Robinson
marooned on a tropical island.
As long as I stayed away from ships
and rain forests I was safe.
© by Hal Sorowitz.
Used with the author's permission.
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Hal Sirowitz (1949 - 2025) was born in Manhattan and spent 23 years as a special education teacher in the New York public school system. Concurrently, he was a hugely successful poet, performing on stages across the country, serving as Poet Laureate of Queens, New York, and earning numerous awards for his work, including a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Poetry in 1994 and a New York State Foundation of the Arts Fellowship in Poetry in 2003. His eleven books were translated into 13 languages.
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Phyllis Beckman:
I plan to paste this poem on my forehead for the day, my hair pinned securely, the strands safe from secretions, myself suddenly surviving, safe.
Stunning, Sir Sorowitz!
Posted 12/18/2010 07:32 AM
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