Territorial Claims
- Territorial Claims
While walking a narrow path high above Boulder, looking
for a spot to sit, I paused at a large rock
alongside a path and there stood on the rock
(with grays and greens— the same as her own colors)
a pregnant lizard, a skink standing high
careful to keep her belly lifted
from her perch, the hot surface while she, weary of trouble, watched
me, coolly calculating my next move
determined to protect her inner bubble
skinky enough to go to war with me, if necessary
so I moved off the path far from her, making a large circle
I regained the path all the same up
beyond her rock and again took up my search
for a place I could claim my own
Clarence Major, who has won awards for his poetry and fiction, recently published a novel, Dirty Bird Blues, and edited two anthologies, Calling the Wind: Twentieth-Century African-American Short Stories and The Garden Thrives: Twentieth-Century African-American Poetry. His books include Some Observations of a Stranger at Zuni in the Latter Part of the Century, Surfaces and Masks, Painted Turtle: Woman with Guitar, Fun & Games, and Swallow the Lake. He teaches at the University of California-Davis.
