Look at me. Does my nakedness upset you? Ah,
but I like it this way, all twelve magnificent
feet of me, a sleek, effective lizard, the design
perfected over four hundred million years,
an illustrious, superb hunting machine.
a happy collector of fish, birds and whatever else
I claim for my eclectic eating habits.

As you study me – no, don’t draw back, come closer –
lounging and sunning myself on this hardened
mud bank before I must go, slithering off
into the darkened, plenteous St. John’s River,
haven’t you decided how uncommonly handsome I am?

I’ve figured out what you have yet to acknowledge:
that history is strictly a matter of interpretation,
ambition and ego are badly mismanaged,
courage and greed are exaggerated and falsely perceived,
exquisite sex creates colors you will not otherwise see,
religion too often distorts the truth,
death and life are symbiotic parts of the same totality.

But enough pontification. Surely you must have
some questions. Please, do come a little closer.
The name’s George, but you can call me "Ace."


Donald Everett Axinn
From The Latest Illusion