Poem: “A Look in the Past” by Jared Angira

Once I was a lizard cheeky and harmless and built clouds that the heat never could melt I learnt of the transanimation into a monitor

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Iguana
Colorful iguana in the Caribbean. Image credit: Angel Ceballos on Unsplash.
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A Look in the Past

Once I was a lizard
cheeky and harmless
and built clouds
that the heat
never could melt

I learnt
of the transanimation
into a monitor
deaf to all spikes
a dweller of two worlds . . .

ere my breath had settled
my back grew rough —
my teeth went chisel-like
. . . a crocodile
lurking in sandy seafloor

then one day I died
but knocked my head
on the sharp gravestone
that woke me up
to find me winged
tough-clawed and a scavenger.
I was an eagle,

I went on sojourn
and my red eyes blue'd
till I turned priestly —
pigeoned
till we came to Guernica
where they pinched my olive branch
and gave me a bone

when next I stopped
I was gliding
mutilated . . .
the mongoose pursued me in hideways

I shall go back
to the formless clouds
and melt myself into rain
then shall I land in the plantation
and mate with the secondary roots
of the old fig tree.

Jared Angira

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