Greater Roadrunner — Image by kenne
It’s true, I often see you running about,
With a limp lizard’s tail hanging from your mouth,
Some have witnessed your familiar antics,
taunting rattlesnakes, eagles, and hairy arachnids.
But my favorite three things have to be,
Your curiosity each time you encounter me,
And how you turn your back to the sun for its heat
(like a tiny matador, feathers erect and sleek).
Finally, I think I must surely admit
That trickster track—your zygodactyl footprint!
How do I know which way you are going?
With two toes facing forward and the back two, back-going.
It doesn’t matter much to me you will see
I just look for the “X” in the sand to guide me.
On the trail of a friend, a cuckoo I know
the Greater Roadrunner, always running, on the go.
— from Roadrunner by Michelle Hedgecock
Clever poem!