What the lizard understands
Poetry from "An American Mouth in Thailand"
This piece is part of “An American Mouth in Thailand,” a mini-series based on a recent trip to Thailand and Malaysia. Catch the flight that brought me to Bangkok.
I love the way big lizards walk.
They put their whole body into every step
to honor the snake, which lost its legs, and
the fish from which it came.
They celebrate the miracle of ball joints,
And feet
to choose the earth we touch.
We mammals take legs for granted.
We trot and scamper,
the rest of our body
uninvolved, uninterested,
unconcerned with locomotion
until we break down,
or put our phones down
and dance
belly up, vertical lizards
in reverence, irreverence
to the world we inhabit,
and as we sweat,
the lizard cools in the river,
and flicks its blue tongue.
Well, I don’t know — ferrets sure seem to put their backbone into things.
Interesting to note that no animals actually had proper legs until about 500 million years ago. The same genes that allowed legs to sprout also patterned appendages like antennae and wings. And Jeff Goldblum in The Fly!