You are the leopard and his teeth and speed and overeager claws.

Your misdeeds are those broken black spots, bywords for their own refusal to change.

I am the chameleon who changes too easily, who when he stands against a shadow has to fight to keep from turning black.

Our meeting was the vanishing of the very last cloud from the hot red sky above the grasslands.

Our separation is the first drop of rain to soothe the scarred desert earth.