On my thirty-eighth birthday
I walked through an everglades preserve
On planks over mud and the most plants atop one another I have ever seen
Curtains of moss swung everywhere
I said hello to quite a few fellow gawkers
All of us most eager to see that fierce beast, the alligator
Next I passed a wide open marsh where a dozen types of birds swopped, sat, made their various sounds
I passed three types of bright orange and yellow butterflies
Showing off their fine outfits against green leaf backdrops
Unsatisfied, I went down to the fishing pier
How exciting it was!
A half dozen people stared at something in the black water.
There it was; an alligator!
Our movie star casually floating
He laid vertically, massive head a buoy
Looking like any log
I watched for twenty minutes,
Making friends with a horse dentist
And a naturalist photographer
Then the alligator’s giant taught jaw and half-globe eyes disappeared
Into the photo chemical canal
Before he processed as an indistinct blur of two lighter lines and two crescents
I don’t know how long I waited for his return to surface clarity
It was a half hour, or maybe close to two?
I lost myself in alligator time, expansive outdoor time
I chatted with my new friends
Had the privilege to reveal the alligator to a half dozen more viewers
Who wouldn’t recognize him if he weren’t shown
We were all expecting high drama
Speed and vicious power
But maybe the power is in all the hours of alligator time
Floating still, hidden until the ideal moment of action
Blending, lounging inactivity
For me, the power of this day was the slow and unassuming
Slipping into alligator time
Finding smiles: finding it is enough to stand on this dock
One year older than before.
lisatschudipoetry 