Week Six - Improv - "Fresco" by Marin Sorescu

I never thought I'd write an Iguana poem. I never thought I'd write a poem about excrement. I certainly never thought I'd write a poem about an iguana's excrement. But, well.

Likewise, I never anticipated wanting to write another iguana poem. Clarification: A friend of mine use to work at some kind of nature preservation or something. She mentioned that one of their jobs was squirting the iguanas with a hose for two reasons: 1.) The iguanas enjoyed it. 2.) It helped them go to the bathroom.

Now, I've looked all over the internet and haven't found any one else that practices this type of Iguana care, but when I read Sorescu's first line in "Fresco": "In hell, maximum use/Is made of the sinners" it seemed too prevelant to my recent conversation with my friend to pass up on the possible improv.

I ended up doing a little iguana research and jeez, those weird little animals are chock full of intruiging poetic images...one site in particular mentioned that they have no vocal chords and communicate via head bobbing. He mentions: "Hasbro (one of my iguanas) loves to bob his head every few minutes. He will bob his head every time he succeeds at something like climbing on top of something. He may climb on to my chest when I am in bed and bob and shake his head in my face."

The whole thing is just oddly fascinating to me. Anyways, here's what I've got. I'm seriously going to keep working with this (I don't care for it right now, other than the opening couplet) and I feel like I'm going to end up with a slew of Iguana references in my work. Jeez.

Iguanas Full of Shit

In the cage, maximum use
is made of the water spigot.

With the help of volunteers,
the ancestor to the
secretary that cracks her gum,
snuggles her glasses
between nose and bristled forehead,
and ticks down each disposable pen
crouching in the depths of your purse
is pleasured with the jolt of pressurized water.

Some slide to bellies
and bob heads of slow, gentle
excreted discourse.

Some bob and vibrate sideways,
in the glorified head dance
of success.

After, the men are employed
for the heaviest work,
for the remnant removal,
for the dregs discharged from bowels


(The original is on page 222).