tropical
I stretch to catch their fleeting
forms, fingers barely unfurling
before they're gone already--
shadows darting bird-sprung
across cracked
south Florida pavements--
I say chameleon
meanwhile shifting myself
from Chicago pale to freckled
under altogether other light, a
floridean haze, thick and pastel--
but gecko am corrected--
there, look! a nearly black one
diagonally displayed across
whitewashed mailbox post--
and just there, quick, a stripey
beige one whirling away
beneath bougainvillea--
Bougainvilleeae, by god,
whole tribes of climbing green
unfurling under June's daily drench.
Green grows flat out, fine-boned
lizards emerging to bask
cold blood in episodic light:
broiling, sweltry, very warm indeed.
