04/01/2025
First it was the small lizard in Dan's studio, lurking under the generator, then it was the slightly larger one on the tree by the compost, then it was the one that scuttled across the path of my little granddaughter when we went to the paddock. Swift they are, with those sharp little nails and body-close-to-earth manner of being...
I looked them up. Lizards in Connecticut. There is only one lizard indigenous to Ct. and it has stripes down its back. These do not.
I thought pet stores. People flushing reptiles and amphibia - those of the double life - down toilets. I thought infestation or invasion.
There were questions on google - things like: what do they eat? are they poisonous? how big do they get? what do you do if they get into the sheets of your bed? what happens if you swallow one? will lizards take over the world (again) and how should I prepare, and so on. Questions by excitable sorts. I am not going to be they.
The kitties just watch. No pouncing.
A bit of a back away, truth be told.
And still, I worry. It is a Concern.
So this morning, when I slid open the back door into the garden - it is getting warmer now - the kitties and I, we all three balked, we started, we stared, for there, on the picnic table, was a Group of Lizards (which you must know is called a "lounge of lizards"!), festively attired, arranged picturesquely as for a long exposure photograph...Others were at the far end moving in a circle in a perfect Pavane, a dizzying mix of the manners of the 16th c and the couture of ohhh from Balenciaga to Rei Kawakubo. The photographers were flitting about; the subjects were lounging about. While designer gowns were a plenty, some eshewed all such and appeared more au nature, in the all together, shall we say. Unsung emperors.
Then, they noticed us.
They all, all,
--- Looked Our Way.
Beady little black eyes (do they blink, I thought to myself..and then - is this something where the one who blinks first....oh, no, then what.). All focussed on us. As a performer, this may seem desirable, but, in the moment, not so much.
The two kitties, Sita and Misty, levitated, then disappeared, only to come stalking rigidly out from around the corner with eyes peeled wide and wondering. They did not hiss. What next?
Of a body, the lizards swiftly rose and bowed, and said some pleasing words of beauty and greeting, quickly gathered their lounge things, and disappeared into the crevices of the rocks, under the sculptures, behind the ivy. Such polite guests. (They had not even been served water as a cue.)
Shocking? A dream? nay, we say.
It was all in a fool's play, on this day of Fools.
And I wish you well!
xo marya
