A Living Fossil

The danger is not in sudden change,
a fault blown wide, a bolt out of heaven.

It's the reptiles.
Moving so gradually one day to the next

you wake to ribbed walls, tongue-runner hallways
and the same sad view beyond a porthole.

If it never moves
you never think to run away.

Until the second skin fits so snug
you become watertight, you are become death.

They say if that mouth is pink
you're a goner.