I write poetry, I've studied poetry, but the only poem I can recite from memory is:
by Ogden Nash
I give you now Professor Twist,
A conscientious scientist,
Trustees exclaimed, "He never bungles!"
And sent him off to distant jungles.
Camped on a tropic riverside,
One day he missed his loving bride.
She had, the guide informed him later,
Been eaten by an alligator.
Professor Twist could not but smile.
"You mean," he said, "a crocodile."
If you don't know the difference, get educated at the Web site of the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, one of the oldest zoos in Florida. It's on the National Register of Historic Places. These photos are from 1992. Alligators like lying together in the sun. The bottom photo is of a crocodile being fed. Not just any crocodile, though. It's the late, great Gomek, 17 feet, 9 inches, the largest crocodile in the Western hemisphere. He was a saltwater crocodile from Papua New Guinea. He has been "preserved" at the zoo.