Ed Zahniser’s most recent poem to appear here was “My Early Struggles with Kryptonite” (February 2019).

Pattern Recognition
By Ed Zahniser

In physical therapy after a total knee replacement
I try to explain the important role of pattern recognition
to the young Doctor of PT and his assistant Carol
a pleasant young woman with a second job as barista-
in-training at our new post-Starbucks postmodernist
each-cup-brewed-fresh coffee shop but all I have recourse to
is an incident on Alaska’s Noatak River with an Alaska Native
guide and boat captain in which I saw onshore at a great
distance a lone caribou barely discernible against the muted terrain.
The guide peered intently and at length said “That is a caribou.
I should take you hunting with me!” but somehow
the Doctor of PT and Carol think I am telling
a joke and after an awkward pause the Doctor asks:
“What’s the punch line, Ed?”