Gaele Sobott
where yellow-spotted goannas lay their eggs
late in the wet season or early in the dry
sinuous with whiplike tail fierce long claws
she digs a helical burrow
down backfill dead end
across backfill dead end
down backfill dead end
across backfill dead end
down backfill dead end
corkscrew spiralling
down twelve feet to soil that’s cool and wet
she digs a chamber the size of two clenched fists
and lays her eggs backfill
up backfill dead end
across backfill dead end
up backfill dead end
across backfill dead end
up backfill dead end
Ten days later she emerges from the earth
into brutal sun her fork tongue flickers in search of food
where yellow-spotted goannas lay their eggs
tightly-packed labyrinths corkscrew spiral
merge collapse erode ventilate the earth
with megacities of lizards snakes scorpions centipedes
beetles ants frogs
high-rise densely-populated ecosystems
where yellow-spotted goannas lay their eggs
baby goannas hatch with long claws
they scratch straight holes to the top
emerge from soil to sun or moonlight
their forked tongues flicker in search of food
infestations of cane toads
colonisers
invasion species
sugar plantations
dry warty toxic
corkscrew
spiral
lethal dead end
yellow spotted goannas dead end
underground cities dead end
complex ecosystem dead