Sam Stokley
Lizard Boy in Love
It’s supposed biology will take
over, so Lizard Boy waits for it
to come. In his scaly body
he watches all warm
flesh, acutely tuned to danger
and desire. One time two mantises
completed biology on the rock adjacent.
He watched one lose its head
to ecstasy, then Lizard Boy, compelled,
took the sated mantis into his mouth
and chewed. Intimacy continues
in this way. Lizard Boy loves
safety and gorging on locusts.
Lizard Boy might lose a part
of his body when biology comes.
Lizard Boy loves possibility; of undevoured
berry bushes; a plague of crickets
fat on dewy grass. He watches
lizards he grew up with get ripped
open by teeth and talons. Lizard Boy
waits.
Sam Stokley is a disabled artist, educator, and editor from Peoria, IL living in Minneapolis. A 2019 finalist for BOAAT Press' and Driftwood Press' chapbook prizes, Sam's writing can be found now or soon inside Driftwood Press, Brevity, Fairy Tale Review, Poetry City, and other homes. He has recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa. Follow Sam on IG (@bovinii).