-after Tom T. Hall’s Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine

The video that goes viral
shows the septuagenarian,
sucking on a stogie, belly bulging
under a soaking wet t-shirt,

standing hip deep in swamp water
prying open the jaws of an alligator
and a brown and white spaniel leaping out
and running fast and far away.

But that’s only a smidgeon of the story.
Richard tells the blonde broadcaster
he is on a Sunday morning stroll when a gator
grabs Gunner and swims off with him.

He gives chase, jumps in the pond,
dives underwater and wrestles
with the reptile, until he extracts
his puppy like an infected molar, 

and then he has a new problem.
The gator’s jaw snaps shut, 
trapping both hands in its mouth.
But like Houdini, he wriggles free,

washes the blood off his hands,
wraps Gunner in a blanket
and rushes him to the hospital
where he stays for two days.

But both are good as new now
as they cuddle in front of the camera,
the three-month old baby with buggy eyes
and no memory of being kidnapped

by a predator and the bald man
with the mustache who insists
wrestling with an alligator is what
anyone would do to save a loved one.