MOFONGO

It’s the first day we’ve been able to lie out  

The atmosphere has been moody 

Here we are though on the loungers  

And the surf mashes onto the buttery sand behind us 

We have brought a book each but are soon distracted by an iguana 

It wanders into vision about twenty feet away on the grass  

In a clearing fringed with coconut palms 

The lizard is big and its tail tapers off to a seemingly infinite point 

It is unafraid and its movements are elegant 

Then it stops 

A smaller one, more colourful, scampers up alongside 

This one has a crest and seems a little skittish 

Are you watching?  

Yes, I say 

Everyone is 

The small one climbs on to the scaly spine of the first 

They stay like that for ten minutes 

Maybe more 

I look at my book 

But can’t finish a sentence  

Some kids from the chalet next door come and take photographs 

It looks like a mother giving its baby a ride 

As chimps cling to the breast 

But I guess they are just having sex  

They are not having sex!   

I sip a little rum as he gets his spuds in slowly 

Is it the way of it here in the tropics 

They don’t seem to care 

There by the bar  

A stone skip from the sea  

As the waves break and break again