All About Lizards

A Sonnet and a Tanka

A Sonnet for Lizards

Atop the sky the merry sun will sing
a branle of dawn and noon, day after day.
And all the lizards hear his music play:
the drumbeats of the stones—their lithe tails swing—
and piping of the breezes whistling.
From out each rocky crevice bleak and gray
the lizards climb and look. Their long necks sway;
eyes blink in brightness; they go capering
to drum and trill and to the sun’s great song—
from dawn to noon to dusk go round and round.
Day after day they dance the summer long;
their pale coats glimmer on the sun-bright ground;
and as they run and flirt and whisk, the strong
sun sings again the silence that is sound.

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Too hot for my toes!
Lizards are just growing warm,
my little neighbors.
Together we inhabit
this land of stones and summer.

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