by Alex Steelsmith

“Code compliance official finds alligator in North Carolina attic…
‘The workers having lunch… kind of laughed at me when I told them…’
[the official said].”
—UPI

Happily, snappily,
skeptical contractors
saw the official as
someone to mock,

certain his finding was
non-crocodilian—
though they considered his
story a croc.

Munchily, crunchily,
lunch-eating laborers,
lucky they hadn’t been
chewed into shreds,

chewed on their sandwiches;
unmetaphorically
speaking, the story was
over their heads.