Homage to the Lizard

from gratitude songs by Jill Battson

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.

Purchasable with gift card

name your price
Buy the Full Digital Album

lyrics

Homage to the Lizard

for Stephen Bull

O lizard, guardian of the quiet house,
I have seen you peek from the high shelf above the sink
while I washed dishes
you are unblinking and still
until I fetched a broom to poke you

I have seen you scurry along the flagstone
and disappear through the smallest crack
you have thwarted curious dogs
and their dangerous inquiring paws
caused me to shriek when I discovered you inside saucepans

I have seen you motionless on walls
with your suction cup toes
you have surprised me with a flicking twist
of your scaled tail on the dinner table
and o lizard, when I find you this morning
upon the living room floor
grey and curled, as it fending off foes
I am surprised that you are dead.

credits

from gratitude songs, released June 17, 2013

license

about

Jill Battson Toronto, Ontario

Jill Battson is an interdisciplinary poet. She has written several plays as well as the libretti for two operas and produced an electro acoustic sound art project. Dark Star Requiem, for which she wrote the libretto, premiered at Toronto’s Luminato Festival in 2010 and was published in book form. Her new collection, The Ecstatic Torture of Gratitude, was recently published by Guernica Editions ... more