It mottles in with paperbarks
obscures the line between
what’s animate and not.
Brow and beak point up
silent as a pharaoh.
It dozes through the hum,
carves a block of stillness in the day,
mimics light and shade
not quite an owl
or bird of prey,
half-frog, half-fish, half fowl
the wideness of its mouth obscene.
But at night this predator,
this strange unearthly fellow
will shed unneeded camouflage
and stab the dark with yellow.