A Look in the Past by Jared Angira

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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.