'Man Hollowed Out Wooden
Leg To Smuggle Iguanas'
– BBC News headline
I would have got away with it
but for the noise –
claws scratching at the wood,
those genteel coughing sounds
iguanas make.
“One moment, sir”
I knew then I was done for.
“ If you could come this way. . .”
In my skivvies, standing on one leg,
I watched him spring the secret trapdoor –
out they tumbled – all my little darlings
skittering across the polished floor.
Tiny dinosaurs in Terminal Two.
It’s said that they escaped into the drains
and flourished there . . .
One day they will return, Godzilla-like
crunching Jumbo jets to junk
between their claws, reeking of jet juice
and a thousand rotting airline meals.
