Like A Lizard Poem by Suzanne Hayasaki

Right now I sit
Like a lizard on a brick wall
Clinging to tiny crevices
As everything around me crumbles.

I remain mute
All senses alert
Aware that raptors may circle above
Hungry, keen eyed,
Ready to dive.

And yet, I can sun myself.
I can wait for flies to buzz too close.
I can feel the heat on my belly
Soaked in by the stone.

I can absorb.
I can observe.
Hyper-aware of the cracks
Widening in the smooth path
I thought spread before me.

The weather warms.
The days lengthen.
Tempting us to forget
That we carry a contagion.

And so I watch as people gather
Innocent in their desire to congregate
Face-to-face, shoulder-to-shoulder,
Taking comfort in the very contact
That could kill them.

Or inflamed with the anger of the ignorant,
Insisting on their right to infect the many,
As if "life" were the least of the freedoms
Guaranteed by the forefathers
Whose memories they malign.

So like the lizard looking up at a clear blue sky
I climb high above the melee
Hoping this plague will pass beneath me
Like a Carnival of jesters
And revelers
And Death.