petco snakes

take me to your capture
where you were born like ribbon.
i no longer wish to be
whatever kind of free
i am told this is. i want 
a terrarium like yours where 
the world arrives for me to swallow.
a frozen mouse unthawing
in the heat lap. tell me,
when you see my eyes 
do they look like marbles
or distant planets? you move
like a noose around the dead log.
hide your face in a plastic cave.
maybe i am romanticizing 
your containment. forgive me.
my mind is just spilling 
from every single sky.
i tie myself to radiators
to keep from becoming a roadkill.
then here you are
with your right angles
& a lid where you were once
lowered in. i am looking
for a handler who will be gentle 
& not afraid of me. we are not
all the different. i will admit
i so badly want to take you home
& let you loose in our house
just to discover where you would
hide yourself. would it be
the same place that i go? the corner
of the room where i can hear
cars spinning down the street
late into the darkness. 
but no i will leave you here
my brief scaled friend. 
someday, tell me what you dream of.
we can always trade. i can be 
the cord or life behind glass
& you can be the human 
without any levees. whose face
makes a moon in your glass.