Glimpse of a Toddy Tapper

That skin-and-bone-like, Chocolate-colored veteran, Fragile personality accession; Ascends tallest of palms, Committed to toddy-tap, As it’s his hereditary profession...! Driving upward and down, Like a smart willing monkey, He reaches the highest of height; Sitting over the petite petioles, As though it's a comfort car-seat, Sets all spiders - meshes aright...! Clears the now-soiled toddy-pots, Crops the prolific flower-stumps, Rectifies, like a surgeon, all clots; Goes around the fronds gliding, As though skiing on sky, Support of nothing but angle-knots...! Of all measures that attracts me, Is his hurdling noble gallantly, From one tree to another, By way of stem-bridges; There-from, like a rat, Or as a missionary-squirrel, On hard earth he reaches, As though in water, he ditches...! 17 January 2022