Mr. Rogers Visits Koko the Gorilla, a poem

Mr. Rogers Visits Koko the Gorilla, a poem

 

Koko was clearly in love with him.

He was the human equivalent

 

of what in her world would be a male silverback

& I think she would have adopted him into her tribe

 

in a heartbeat. She took his shoes & socks off

& tickled his feet & pressed them to her own.

 

She kissed his hands & groomed his face & hair

with her fingertips. She wanted his gold cufflinks

 

(to remember him by) & you could hear the anxiety

in his voice when he said “My grandfather

 

gave those to me.” Really, really hoping

he was going to get away still possessing

 

his treasured cufflinks. What if Koko

had insisted? Would Penny have been able

 

to talk her out of it? Distract her to something else?

Mr. Rogers seemed nervous but in awe

 

at the communion with such a “being,”

as he called her. She flirted, playing

 

peekaboo with him, her large eyes knowing & coy

from underneath a cloth covered with pictures of kittens.