Magdalena Ball - 2 - Persona Grata: Nobbi Dragon

I actually wrote a new poem for this section which takes the persona of Hal, the computer gone bad from 2001: A Space Odyssey (“Open the pod bay door, Hal”), but I kind of liked it and it felt pretty done so I entered it into a competition and therefore can’t post up here (as no prior publication), but I’ve added it in.  Here’s another, slightly modified, from Project365.  

Nobbi Dragon

when you called me cold-blooded
I don’t think you meant merciless

my swaying gait, stereoscopic vision
head up to read the ultraviolet spectrum 

invisible colours of light
blood rising in my throat as bile

vertebrate blood is bright red or dark red
depending on the oxygenation of its hemoglobin

the lizard brain takes over
and all you want is a moment in the sun

what does it mean to bleed here
in such an open space, my scales exposed

while I watch you suffer
too much information freezing me to the spot

320 million years ago we parted ways
so now I’m only 75% reptile, stripes hidden beneath pretend skin

vestigial tail as coccyx, my body in a constant state 
of evolutionary flux, as I make my way back