Iris N. Schwartz | Tyro

Tyro

It is green. It is cold. Its taut muscles push against lethargy and fear.  Its belly is teased by the chill of earth, damp then dry, sometimes smooth, often gritty, now both. 

With its eyes, its hazel-and-gold lizard eyes, it looks down, around; slowly lifts its head. It is naked. It is fresh like grass. It is cool as garter snake. 

Oh god, what bet did it lose? 

It is quiet; it is alert, this stealth reptile, superhero to all close to the ground. 

It tries to herd flies, dogs, roaches away from its nonbreathing owner, but it is only one lizard. It is green, it lacks experience (though it told the pet store proprietor it had lived with humans before).

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Iris N. Schwartz is the author of more than sixty works of fiction. Her  flashes have been published in dozens of publications, including Blink-Ink, Crack the Spine, Fictive Dream, Jellyfish Review, Literary Orphans, and Spelk Her second short-short story collection, Shame (Poets Wear Prada, 2019), contains the 2018 Best Microfiction-nominated story “Dogs” and was shortlisted by North of Oxford for recommended summertime reading in 2019. Brisket for One, her latest collection of short fiction, is coming out this fall, in 2020. Ms. Schwartz lives in Washington Heights, New York City, with actor David B. McConeghey.