"Lizard."
"Volatile, a hybrid of dinosaur and toy, this living remnant
throbs on the hot stone.
A prehistoric off cut, six inches of chlorophyll green,
dusted with pollen.
A trick of nature, lithe, ectopic, uniform,
stocking filler, out of place everywhere but in the sun.
Frisking the wall, it snatched run
as a dotted line of fits and starts.
Spasmodic and stopped, it pulses once,
slips into a rock, the gulp.
This morning, one flits across the room.
Three floors up from the garden, its curiously boneless toes
seem already extinct.
Struggling for purchase on the polished tiles,
its back feet frantic mops on a curling rink.
When I lifted to the sill, it jaunts over,
reverting to rubber as it falls, and bounces off
the stones below, dead still, darts away, rewinding."