write this
emmer effer
a pretend genius broadsuction
some days are better than none
Entire Contents Copyright ©2010 and forever before and after
writeThis.com, pretendgenius.com, cafehopeless.com and author.
All Rights Reserved.
 | ||||
Erik Neill Outhwaite
Grade: 11
Hunter College High School
Teacher: Lois Refkin
My Father’s Iguana
The Iguana is a
Sentimental
Creature
It is, more thoughtful
Than the sloth
Yet not as noisome.
The Iguana is an
Indispensable
Creature
It yields to no one
So you must be deferential.
My Father’s Iguana
Would prefer
Mud, the clay of the Earth
And lettuce,
Or greenbacks as you might say.
My Father’s Iguana eats richly
My Father’s Iguana
Does not have a taste for music.
But he likes Bob Dylan
My Father’s Iguana
Is from New Mexico
Madrid, a small town of small people
And small lives.
Madrid, pronounced
Mah-Dred.
My Father’s Iguana
Used to watch the coal miners.
They would blow the top off hills, excavate, and move on.
The thick black sludge would ooze down,
The semi-volcanoes of the Southwest
A bird would land and pick at the stones.
Stone Strong
Rock Hard
The bird would move on
To Cacti and shade
My Father’s Iguana
Would sleep,
Dozing in the Mah Dred Sun
A fly would come, and depart.
The milky haze of the pickup trucks and cars
Would illuminate the landscape through the late afternoon and the evening
The sun would begin to glow goodbye
The red stone of the Houses,
Crimson Brown
Would now fade
Amber
Ruse
Mauve
A detachment of purple and violet
The shrubbery on the hill would fade too
A true spectacle.
A fly came to rest on My Father’s Iguana
They stayed there, embraced.
The rough plateaus of the New Mexican Landscape
Became still
The working men were home in Mah Dred
If not for the lightest breeze, shimmering the grass
The quiet was sonorous.
Then my father appeared, illusory in the mellow dusk
He took My Father’s Iguana
And wrote him into his canvas.
He carved his toes, he smoked his patterns and eyes, he discriminated so thoroughly as to
leave My Father’s Iguana colorless.
But I know the true colors.
