Fringe-toed Sand Lizard

Clearstories

24×30 in

Archival Inkjet Print

2017

$1,750/set unframed

Fringe-Toed Sand Lizard by Naila Moreira

Uma scoparia/notata/inornata

Taxonomy of death.

First, genus. Italicized, for emphasis.

Uma.

In Portuguese, single,

but here, for Yuma, Native tribe. Like their namesake, belonging to desert –

believing that all beings, lizards, rocks, mountains, sands,

birds, stunted trees, cactus, air, dry winds,

jack rabbits, burrowing owls, brittle bushes, ants, rain,

lifegiving Colorado River,

have a soul, a point of view.

The species: scoparia.

Having twigs.

It runs on fringed back feet, skims sand

like walking on water.

Or notata.

Marked. As in blotches –

as in fated, threatened, doomed. By off-road vehicles, left a smear on the sands.

Or again, inornata – unmarked –

as compared to marked, lives only in the Coachella Valley,

three quarters of its habitat erased.

Arizona, Nevada, California, the drylands,

Joshua trees, arms upraised to sky, tawny flats

stirred by many small feet.

Uma, the woman. In Sanskrit, tranquillity. Splendour. Fame.

in Hebrew,

nation.

Uma, dancing the desert, feet emitting fine spray,

Jesus-lizard of the southwest, miracle worker,

soul reflecting ours, arms out,

dying for our sins.