Lizard Aware

If I were secretly human, I would strive to meld, invisibly
into any habitat where I found my little lizard self,
I would nibble on wilted greens with the geckos in my tank.

If I awoke as a sapient skink, I would still listen and I’d laugh
at all the slimy, saurian jokes. I would easily speak
in the clichés common to a culture of lizards.
I would shift my scales to mimic the colors of silicone and steel.

If I had shed the tactics of reptilian roles, I would keep that
a secret, and pile the prettiest pebbles in my corner…guard them
tooth and claw; I would scuttle across the floor of my circumstances,
frantic for the feast of struggling fly, or a bloody, squirming worm.