Poem: Fence Wizard

 

 Fence Wizard

 

nervous dagger,

no caesar to slay,

heat will not die

and it surely is king

 

of alabaster and tan,

the only flags known,

crumbling like the foothills,

a fuzzy kind of real

thick with blurry waves.

 

caffeine for cold-blooded veins,

which simmer more fervent

than any mammal,

making love to burning stone,

chest to chest.

one heartbeat enough for both,

the squamous belly sleek

against coarse, mummified clay.

 

this alliance, so fast, 

could flee in a blink,

disappear to nowhere,

evading the pluck of a kestrel.

 

other times, the fence wizard

sits like speckled dough,

impossible to snatch,

camoflauged by its oven-magic.

 

might, at long last,

the wizard choose the talons?

to witness, as a sage might, 

the world from its highest perch?

 

such has always been 

this wizard's beautiful strategy:

staccato reconnaissance 

from hairline eyes--

to snatch clues 

and surmise the truth

from fragments.

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8/12/25 

"Fence wizard" is a play on "western fence lizard," a common species in the chaparral.