OntheWilderSide

Maria Sibylla Merian’s 366th birthday is the subject of today’s Google Doodle. She was a German naturalist who illustrated insects in a scientific way.

Though, what got me excited, was the iguana!

Just thinking about my favorite iguana poem, which I wrote after studying an iguana in Northport, New York:

Alone
by Kimberly Wilder

I like to be alone.
When I am alone, I am more beautiful.
I do not need to meet some expectation,
be somebody’s image of
butterfly woman
or flower girl.

In nature, everything has its charm,
even crinkly iguanas and
the opaque wings of insects.
Alone, I judge myself by these standards.

In my own mirror,
the thin skin around my eyes is not age,
but the translucent beauty of a rabbit’s ears.
Gray circles are not gray at all,
simply shades of purple and blue
borrowed from the sky over the lighthouse.

Cellulite, with no one there to name it,
reveals itself as beautiful ripples,
the worn edges of mountain peaks
reflected in waves of polished stone.

Alone, I see
the white spots on my fingernails
are not Grandma’s lies,
but swishes of seashell clouds in
a salmon colored sky.

The awkward cup of my heel
is not bone or foot,
but a perfect fit with the palm of my hand,
an unexplored edge of my body.

By myself, I know that
all folds and imperfections
are the awesome imprint
of an extraordinary leopard, or
the draping skin of some exotic creature.

Because, when I am alone
even the iguana parts of me are beautiful.

Filed under: Art, kimberly wilder, poetry Tagged: | creature in Maria Sibylla Merian's Google Doodle, Google Doodle, iguana, Maria Sibylla Merian