Crooked Tailed Lizard

Her tail is bent at 90 degrees
I can’t help but wonder why did it freeze

In that angle. 

It must have hurt.

Guilt slithers up my spine

With a memory from my teenage years

When we put a lizard in a jar

And dove it to the bottom of the pool.

We were such cruel fools

Who just wanted to see 

What would happen

As the pool’s pressure squeezed that 

Unfortunate lizard.

Our little lizard scurries across the deck

Sunning herself while doing pushups.

I do not know if the lizard is a she.

I didn’t lift its legs to see its genitals.

When I step out onto our backyard porch

She cocks her head

Smiling at me, with her lizard lips

She knows I won’t hurt her.

But If I get too close, she moves,

Maintaining a safe distance,

Just in case I might revert,

And be like the junior high boys

Who haven’t yet learned

That all life is sacred

All life needs to be respected.

All creatures, even lizards,

Get hungry, endure pain, feel joy

They are not just a toy

For some curious boy

To play with.

What is our crooked tailed lizard thinking?

What is she feeling,

As she suns herself

On our back porch?

Does she read lizard novels

In the bushes she hides in?

Does she contemplate justice

Or does she think we are weird

Because we eat more than we need.

We kill animals we don’t eat.

Wear clothes 

When it’s hot.

Does she have a family

With her own children and grandchildren

Who love and cherish her?
I’d like to think so.

Does she wonder why our neighbors have cats

Whose teeth and claws kill

Birds, mice, moles, and lizards

Just for the fun of it,

As if they, too, were just teenage boys

Who see those living beings

As nothing but toys

To play with.

Does our little crooked tailed lizard

Say a prayer of thanks

Before eating a meal of a spider

Or some other living creature?

Are we so different from our little friend

Who sunbathes nude while doing push ups

I, too, can’t help but wonder

Why humans wear clothes

When it’s hot.

 

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