Barbed Wire

Blue Tongue

Blue-tongue slumped by the track

head to one side

as a swimmer takes breath.

Flattened

by careless woodcutters.

Still,

your meaty tail reclines skink-supple

and sly

as a tentacle.

I cannot see your namesake tongue

but I remember it -

muscular as a vein pumped up

and I recall

the time you

terrorized -

trapped against the brooding back door

a wind-up toy -

all clockwork momentum and incomprehension.

You made father

cry out

with imported

fear: 'Joy! What is it?

A a a

snake?'

Now,

you've come

again:

Discarded on the road like some crime of war;

while father

sits stiff

with fists

grenade tight

stifling the reptiles that riot in his mind.

Blue-Tongued Skink

benjamint444@yahoo.com.au

http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/9\/93\/Blotched-Blue-Toungue-Alpine-phase.jpg