Lizard Proportion Poem by Ananta Madhavan

The cave he lives in is a meter from our door,
A man-made hole for rain and swill-water.
He took up vacant possession one day
And recks neither drought nor flood.
He peeps out arc-eyed for a moving morsel.
Dart and scurry is his life,
Loot and scoot is his life.

When people walk along the corridor,
He knows the giants are coming; he can tell
The harmless from the scared. A stumped foot
Is thunder and earth tremor.
He turns about,
Swifter than weather-vane in wind-blast,
Scuttles home, tail vanishing into a point.

What a reversal!
The caveman fled into the safer dark
When monster lizards roamed,
Some were harmless, some were plain scared,
All were utterly doomed.