Crotaphytus nebruis
Sonoran collared lizard
Tj Hoffman Duffy
Blue and red burn in the sky high above our parched earth
pink is born close to the horizon of the Sonoran collared lizard
a risky fellow, who reins over 6 nations
the Tohono O’Odham, Mexico, Ak-chin, Pascua Yaqui, Yuma-Quechan,
and the United States
invisible boundaries made by his human counterparts
you dwell in a place where spirits cry, deep in canyons among
saguaros and prickly pears, mesquite and palo verde trees
between the winds that carry hope
teacher of the Aztec sun dancers, draped with two black rings around
your neck; left over from your previous life as an Inca king
a slanky rascal doing push-ups on all fours
usually perched upon a heated rock, basking in the rays of the great sun
or spelunking in water holes created by the leaking sky of the monsoon
spotted back hides you from the desert floor, keeping a vigil watch
for predators in the sky, escaping from the shadows of a
Harris's hawk, built with the stamina of an Olympic sprinter
running swiftly through desert scrub, bobbing up and down
eyes of mystic moons, dangling hands, you run free between man-
made borders, where human vows sweat, broken and shard
across your land beneath our purple dotted horizon that accents our turquoise moon
let us humans walk in your lizards’ ways, teach us that someday
we may learn of your borderless manners
~~~~~
Tj Hoffman Duffy received his BA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona in 2010. He has enjoyed playing with words since grade school. He likes the hope that can be expressed in the written word. Especially when it generates healing and respect for our Earth and other beings.