TOOTHLESS GATOR DANCE  (10-14-2021, 12:00am, Palm Springs, California)

     
with my useless        
post op        
right arm        
bound up        
in this sling        
for at least        
another month        
here at        
the end        
of another long day        
as exhausted        
as i am        
so ready for bed        
i still have        
one more last        
struggle ahead        
before i can        
for the usually        
quick simple act        
of getting out        
of my pants        
has recently become        
a considerably        
more daunting challenge      
more bass ackward      
feeling      
strenuously efforted      
blind houdini like      
act      
as slipping        
my legs out        
of these long        
green        
skinny legged pants        
struggling here  
in the dark        
with only my        
one  non dominant        
left hand        
took me nearly        
eleven frustrating        
minutes        
to achieve        
and felt more like        
i was wrestling        
two long        
green        
siamese twin        
feisty alligators        
trying their        
conjoined best        
to twist me        
into tangled knots        
before drowning        
then devouring me        
in my presently        
exhausted state        
yet even        
though        
the gaping  open        
maw        
of its toothless mouth        
being the waist        
of my        
nocturnally morphing        
cantankerous        
pants        
with both        
my legs        
still stuffed        
and unmovingly stuck        
for a while        
down        
the twisted throats        
of its two        
tapered        
ankle gripping tails        
when i first        
perceived them        
in this way        
was a slightly        
unsettling thought        
as it already        
had swallowed me up        
securely caught        
mid thigh high    
up over my knees        
and yet        
despite the fact        
that i am its        
favorite        
and only food        
still i had        
no fear at all        
and i knew that        
i would win        
this fight        
for i myself alone        
have and own        
the only teeth        
it knows        
just as i am        
its master        
the primary        
deciding factor        
of its        
of their        
uncertain  temporal        
destiny        
and their        
relatively precarious        
fate        
as well        
no matter        
whether        
they be        
the suddenly imagined        
metaphor        
of two  long        
siamese twin        
feisty  green alligators        
trying their        
conjoined best        
to twist me        
into tangled        
knots        
before drowning        
then devouring me        
in my presently        
exhausted        
state        
or only these        
long  green        
skinny legged        
cantankerous        
pants        
nonetheless        
even then        
i still        
confidently sensed        
and knew        
sooner or later        
sweet victory        
would inevitably        
still be        
mine        
in the end        
as i finally        
slipped off        
completely surrendered        
letting go        
of everything else  
drifting off into  
the        
vacuous        
inner darkness        
of my        
much needed        
deep sleeps        
restorative        
healing
nightly dance  
triumphantly free  
at last  
from my  
one handed  
toothless  
man eating  
pants  
now tossed off    
lying over there  
in a  
defeated  
tangled heap  
on the floor  
in a sudden  
reversal  
of roles  
as my sacrificial  
treat  
for this  
all consuming  
night  
to come  
and freely  
drown and devour
me now
to swallow me
whole
at last
here in my
presently exhausted
state
of broken
being
instead