Your translucent skin
Gasps gently for breath
In the Land of the Noonday Sun;
A mountainous vista
Unexpectedly replaced
With Ziploc bags and
Moist paper towels
As you travel to
Transparent incubators
To be fed a diet of
Crickets,
Humidity,
And rising temperatures.
Beneath a harsh and
Artificial sun
Thermal cues subliminally shift
Subdermal networks
To rebuild broken vessels,
Replenishing moisture
That breathes new life
Into your acclimatised
Enclosure.
Genetic sampling begins
To unpeel the
Secrets of your
Self-sacrifice,
Revealing the limitations
Of your plasticity in the
Blistering face
Of warming skies.
This complex sequencing
Extracting a simple truth:
That if we cannot regenerate
A way of living then
We will surely suffocate;
Hung in the heat
Like withered husks
Of fragile skin.
The Southern Gray-cheeked Salamander (Image Credit: John P Clare; CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
This poem is inspired
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