lizards in captivity

the skin around my toes is dry
thick flaking but not green
never that.

only red where the blood flows
from between the 1/16th of an inch cracks
then brown where it scabs over.

no one knows because I hide it
in thick white athletic socks

like I used to hide my iguana Rocky
in the basement, so the cats
and my mother wouldn't move him out of the house
to a colder more lonely hell.

his skin wasn't as dry as mine
and he was liberated

not bleeding in a cage
of socks and mortgage payments.