Two Poems by Ronna Bloom

Between Fur and Skin

In the National Gallery were buffalo standing with their coats
thrown over their shoulders like ladies at a tea.
In another room camels. Came upon them unexpected
between paintings and ideas tied with string. Kept saying

camel, camel. Wounds
enlarged a thousand times to show the scars.
Art that plunged me into
small dark rooms with film scores, moving pictures.

But the animals appeared insistent. A goat smiled in a Chagall.
A million taxidermied birds posed or flew across the centuries.
And those standing buffalo, camels made of fake fur,
burlap, wire, and consciousness.

At a talk in another country, a woman begged the gathered
look out for those few creatures left
with one horn, monstrous, wrinkled, fragile,
killed by the pound for the pound.

Another said why
should I give money to creatures I care nothing about?
And it was us talking from the bottom of our parchest souls
saying, who will take care of us?

The question hovered
and in the room burst out a shame, a pride and baldness
pointing skyward, downward, straight ahead behind, in all directions 
silently saying, this is us, all this.

The Night the Rhinos Came

The night the rhinos came we had nowhere else to look.
They were not accusatory, but trotted towards us like big dogs.
One turned her face left to show us her profile,
batted one eye at ours and fluttered there. To watch
a three-thousand-pound animal flutter makes a great gape of awe.

The children shrieked: He's looking at me!
For size is often male,
and scares or flatters us with its attention.
But she has nothing to do with that.
And trots away. 

If this were a dance, a dream meeting,
we might bow and leave her.
But someone among us here is dreaming
power, will buy a rifle,
run out and begin the killing,
is already having nightmares, planning
an illustrious future.

 It's still possible to love
how small we are
in the face of her face
and our fragility.

* “The Night the Rhinos Came” and “Between Fur and Skin” were originally presented at the symposium “Rhinoceros: Luxury’s Fragile Frontier” in Venice, Italy in 2018 and first published in the exhibition catalogue. In 2021, “The Night the Rhinos Came” will be included in a special issue of Luxury: History, Culture, and Consumption focused on the Venice symposium and edited by Catherine Kovesi.

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Ronna Bloom is a teacher, writing coach, and the author of six books of poetry. Her most recent book, The More, was published by Pedlar Press in 2017, and longlisted for the 2018 City of Toronto Book Award. Her poems have been recorded by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, translated into Spanish, Bangla, and Chinese and have been used in the work of architects, filmmakers, doctors, academics, and spiritual leaders. Ronna is currently the Poet in Community to the University of Toronto. Her "Spontaneous Poetry Booths" and "RX for Poetry" have appeared in hospital waiting rooms, bookstores, fundraisers and arts events in Canada and abroad. www.ronnabloom.com