Lost Joe gone into the woods left of the path

without a light but a lighter running low on fuel;

what to do but give chase?

Into the woods we went to look for Lost Joe,

though Lost Joe we did not find,

unless by magical happenstance

in the dead of Joe’s first night as Lost Joe,

by spell or magical mixture,

in a huff of dramatic smoke or all in an instant,

Lost Joe underwent total metamorphosis

into a garter snake caught in the fold of bloody denim.