Michelle Seaman

ALLIGATOR, SLEEP

Alligators know the power of a straight line only on land.

When they slide into rivers, they keep rhythm
with the current, tails propelling, one with the sway.

Eyes even with the water line, snouts surfacing,
they breathe like this, brine in and out, trusting
a saline solution to stay afloat.

I will hold this in my body

when it is time to trust others to handle my brain,
slow my heart rate, keep me alive.

When it is time to trust chemicals to wake me up,
with the ease of floating,
a full circle meditation, the beginning

perhaps the same as the ending, going under

belly sinking to sediment,
saturating, absorbing all, I will write this,
try for comfort, feel it, spirit.

When an X-ray marks the fracture,
when it is time for splintering and replacement,
I will pray:

Alligator mississippiensis, Alligatoridae,

Let me listen like a mother,
my bones, my child
tapping, ready
for a new world.

Invoking from my skeleton,
grant me the tooth
to crack and evolve, crack to evolve...