Hand/Held, Gaze Met; for Rajni

This tall and long dappled shadow is an animal. We think. We do not know because we are not sure how to ask. It is snakelike and we hear it more than see it. In the way that snakes do not have ears but they can dance to stampedes teetering on the rim of tectonic plates. It seems to glimpse into the world sometimes, in reverberations. The hitch between inhalation and release hums. It soaks in our tea before it is cool enough to drink. It sits on the fresh pile of post at the door and yawns, as though to taste the dreams before a promise, but it has no tongue. It lays near us, just out of sight, and insistently states through the names we offer it, waiting for us to stumble on a whole different language of the catalogue. We have not worked out how to feed it. We will leave that up to you.