The other day I found an exotic creature
Stood on my lawn and called Chameleon;
It was about 1.5-feet long, greenish-gray
In the light of the street lamps, I would say.
It was quite motionless, as a statue still,
To tell you exactly. Some quick research
And my homework online told me
I needed to move him into the sun
To vivify; that was a certain remedy.
I understand such sort of critters
Go into a coma-like conditions
When their body temperature drops too low;
So, next morning I grabbed a towel,
Heated it up a bit in the stove, and
Transported my newest greenish friend
To a sunny spot on my lawn to heat.
Minutes later, no change; an hour later,
Still no change; frozen solid it seemed to be.
As the day went on and the sun shifted,
I transported him to some new sunny locales
In my backyard. All the while, my households
Were laughing at me, but I didn't care --
I was on a mission to animate my frosty charge.
I think I moved him from place to place three times,
Maybe four or five, I started to be nervous.
Next door men probably thought
I was excessively caring, or simply an idiot.
Either way I finally realized I needed to get back
To do my work. Nature does its job, I tried take it easy.
A couple hours later my phone rang.
It was my good neighbour to let me know that
He saw through his window, but couldn't stop a raven
From eating my poor chameleon, just on the spot.
"What?!" I exclaimed. "Ohhhh man!"
"Yeah, your ward is now dead; you know how it is, man."
"Frigging bird!" I muttered into my beard.
"Yep, the evils of nature," he confirmed on the other end.
And that wasn't a pretty sight either.
So I dragged the body into the pond in my backyard.
Then watched him float away, slowly,
Like an Indian funeral rafting minus the flame.
When I told my colloquies the story next day
They all laughed at me as well, as they said,
Once it was active it should change its colour
From green to blue, depending on surroundings it stepped into.
That was a criterion of the chameleon's substance.
The truth is that I'm not really sure if my poor ward
Was frozen or in a state of apparent death.
It's possible I was caring for a dead reptile the whole time.
Likely, I was moving a lifeless reptile around my house
From one sun spot to another wrapped up with a towel,
Like a crazy man. What a booboo! Yeah, come to think of it,
It is pretty funny. But not when it's done by Mother Nature
With her countless arrangements all around. Truly,
As they say, only changes distinguish alive body from dead.
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