Sunday, 9 September 2012

162. Goanna in the Grass

I hear the commotion swell outside
and creep to the doorway to look on
without intruding or risking a bad
surprise; there's been talk of snakes.

One says, There in the tall grass.
Do you see it?

But I don't see it through the people
gathered with their cameras out,
so I skirt wide around them to see
the goanna frozen in the grass.

It's been a while since we've seen one,
I think, but I only say, It's a small one.

Someone scoffs, probably thinking how could
a lizard with a body at least half a meter long
and as wide as a toilet paper tube be tiny?

But someone else agrees It must be a baby.

That's why we haven't seen them lately, I think,
and then--
When did I become an expert in goannas?

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