30/30 Day 1

My prompt: A ten line poem based on a question/answer writing exchange I did with a friend on Tuesday morning

If I Forget to Strike

it’s no secret you’ve resorted to me as I’ve no hands
to strike back and it takes only simple charms to temper my tongue.
a snake and a man— you’ll lull me like brief evolution.

if a crowd gathers mistaking us for show, we’ll follow the pulse
of a worn woman’s liver to the bar in the next town’s crumbling center—
i’ll listen for the breathe well in your heartbeat—
a path for the slither until a small child leaps without looking down.

i can only hope
to be a shark or elephant
next time.