A man chases a young gecko out of his room with a broom, pleased with himself for catching it. The next day, the mood has flipped. He feels suffocated by loneliness, admitting he is without love and friendship, yet avoids company all the same. Defeated and low, he now welcomes the same gecko back when it creeps into a corner, licking its lips after a fly and tilting its head at him.
The shift is the heart of the poem. What first seemed a small, playful game turns out to be a matter of need. The speaker's grin gives way to something close to pleading in the last line, where he calls the gecko "my Achilles" and asks it to brighten his evenings. The name is a touch of dry humour, since the creature is tiny, yet it also shows how much importance he gives this small visitor. The tone is quiet, gently comic at first, then sad and tender. The gecko's cocked head even suggests a kind of understanding between them.