Lines To a Blue Lizard

A Sonnet for an Everyday Friend

Here is a tribute to another brilliant denizen of our house. This poem is a simple Shakespearean sonnet, accented with a lot of assonance and internal rhyme.

Spry

The lizard on my wall is turquoise blue
of a most vivid hue, save where a red
round bloom garlands his back. He hangs askew,
nose down, to creep with all four feet outspread.
His slender tail, on which the flower trails,
is tapered round his toes in a tight curl.
He’s poised as if to leap. And yet his frail
self pausing, nose extended, with his swirl
of tail and crimson flower, makes me fear
the nail that halts his long-suspended leap
will someday fail, shatter the solemn cheer
with which he peers in long delight to creep
upon my wall. We’re careful, you and I,
my smiling friend, although you are so spry.

This follows from my earlier sonnet about the gracious Timotea:

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And now, a tanka for hot nights with a not-quite-full moon..

An oblong shimmer
drips across the midnight sky
as summer strengthens.
We are so close to the sun,
even the moon is melting.

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The ghost-gray rabbit
flits across the moonlight–shhh,
silence is silver.

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