WISH: METAMORPHOSIS
TO HERALDIC EMBLEM


I balance myself carefully
inside my shrinking body
which is nevertheless
deceptive as a cat's fur:

when I am dipped in the earth
I will be much smaller.

On my skin the wrinkles branch
out, overlapping like hair or feathers.

In this parlour my grandchildren
uneasy on sunday chairs
with my deafness, my cameo brooch
my puckered mind
scurrying in its old burrows

little guess how
            maybe

I will prolw and slink
in crystal darkness
among the stalactite roots, with new
formed plumage
            uncorroded
                  gold and

Fiery green, my fingers
curving and scaled, my

opal
      no
eyes glowing