Letter to the Vestigial Reptile

We share this home, you and I,
Though you come and go like a fever
While I crawl around our dwelling
Like a lizard in a fish tank.
How did you ever become the outward wandering, more
Adaptable one, and I the one poised
To jump from the scale? There are moments
When my hands feel like huge fossils
Before I move them and they turn
Into birds. The urge to fly comes then like a storm—
But I stay here because you are gone.
I know there were times of terror
For you too, when you heard thunder and were lost
In smoke, and you didn't have a home.
How did you find me at the end
Of all your epic searching?
I would ask you for that story
If you weren't off wintering on a southern rock.
I hope you aren't late in arriving this year;
Come even if your blood is still cold.