New Companions Coming Soon

I find myself

at the pet store,

bent at the waist

reading how to care

for Leopard Geckos.

Origin: Pakistan.

Great starter lizard.

Eats crickets

dusted with calcium,

            side-step

to the Russian Tortoises,

gray faces crinkled as linen,

they would add slow

life to my apartment,

poker chips of carrots.

Some tanks barren,

a sign reassures:

New companions

coming soon.

Crouching lower,

thighs tight from yoga,

the Central American

Boa Constrictor eats

a defrosted rodent, and yet

I’m drawn to snakes,

cable cords of bodies,

especially the baby

corn snakes, candy pink

with red-hot eyes,

some asleep in braids,

some awake

winding like taffy through

a miniature tree where

their skin peels off

to hang like sheer,

crisp tinsel. A boy

walks up next to me,

touches their glass tank

with one finger.

Wearing a Sturgis t-shirt

he has white-blond hair,

slick-shorn to the scalp

like lamb’s wool.

Gross,

he whispers.