What’s Underneath My Hammock?

I lay across the hammock on
an early summer’s day
and pushed my toes against the deck,
which made the hammock sway.
My thoughts rose up above the clouds
then drifted far away.

When suddenly my peaceful state
was shattered by a sound:
a scuffing as a something moved
quite fast across the ground.
I pulled my toes in close to me
and bravely looked around.

The deadly snake that I was sure
was there for me to find,
with fearsome fangs inside its head,
its body stretched behind,
was just a silly figment of
my overactive mind.

I laughed out loud to see it there:
a little lizard, nothing more!
There’s no way it would hurt me
with its harmless looking jaw.
Its stumpy legs could barely lift
its belly off the floor!

I leant my face down close to it
and said, ‘Now what are you?’
The lizard hissed and showed its tongue:
a murky shade of blue.
I knew at once what it was called.
I think that you might, too.

(Blue-tongue Lizard)

© Kristin Martin 2013

This poem is also in my poetry book, To Rhyme or Not to Rhyme? (Glimmer Press, 2019).

55 thoughts on “What’s Underneath My Hammock?”

  1. Hi Kristin,

    I find lizards to be quite cute creatures. I have seen many lizards when we go on holidays around the world and I always stop to say hello.

    Ranulaka

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  2. Hi kristin

    I really like your poem because once I think I saw a blue tongue lizard did you know that some lizards can make there tail come off!!!

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    • Hi Malikai,

      I did know that some lizards can lose their tail! They can re-grow it, but it still makes me sad when I see it. I wonder if it hurts?

      Have you seen any other lizards? My family has a pet lizard- it’s a bearded dragon.

      Kristin

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  3. Hello Kristin,
    Blue tongue lizards look scary at first because of their blue tongue! Once you find out what it really is, you kind of want to hold it, well, that’s what I feel!

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  4. Hi Kristin,
    That was a funny poem! One day I would like to be as talented as you are! I would love to write poems for everyone to read! What poems do you commonly use?
    Haiku, free verse, rhymed poetry, ode? I am sure you can do all types of poetry!
    Thank you for writing this poem! Loved it! ❤️

    Love Clara

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    • Hi Clara,

      Do you write poems? I would like to read some of yours, if you wouldn’t mind posting them on here. There is a page called
      Your Poems’ if you want to add some.

      I have been writing lots of rhyming poems recently. Most of them follow the ballad rhyming structure, but I try to include poems with different rhyming schemes, including some sonnets. I have also written some haiku recently. Maybe I can put a haiku on my website. I need to add some more poems to my website!

      Kristin

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      • Hi Kristin,
        Yes I do write poems! I would love to add some of my poems in that website!

        My favourite types of poems to write are acrostic poems, haiku or rhyming poems!

        I love writing poems! ❤️

        Love Clara

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  5. Hi Kristin

    It was funny how it was thought that a deadly venomous snake was under the hammock and then when you look it is just a small little lizard. I think your poems are pretty excellent when i see because it was very funny and rhymes.

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  7. Hi Kristin
    I really like this poem because it is a common thing that happens, when you oversleep. This happened to me once and I got frightened. It also reminded me of the time we went to the museum and went into the discovery centre and we got to see all different animals such as skinks, snakes, bees, spiders etc. Another cool thing was they had a shark which was chopped in half so you could see the inside of the shark.
    Yenuli

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  8. Hi Kristin
    I remember Once their was a blue tongue lizard in our backyard Even though we didn’t own one.And I also like the use of rhyming in this poem.

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  9. Dear Kristin,
    this poem was really exiting I thought that there was a snake or a puppy was underneath the hammock. my sister even made a power-point on blue tongue lizards.

    regards Tirath.

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  11. Hi Kristin
    I loved this poem. It was really great. I liked how you kept the audience o the edges of their seats because e at first you did say it was a snake. I like the element of surprise you added to it. Just out of surioutcity, did this actually happen to anyone you knew, or did it happen to you?
    Tharusha

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  13. I like the fact that you used unique words to describe things in your poem. I also like the way you described the snake that had so much detail.

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  16. I am guessing that it is a blue tongue lizard, well I know it is. What made you choose a hammock?
    Do you like lizards? I actually think that they are pretty cool! In fact I think that any reptile is cool. Once an animal community called “animals anonymous” came to our classroom at school and brought in some animals, even a carpet python! Everyone was so scared that someone even climbed up a chair but I wasn’t – I was so amazed that I wanted it to go around my neck. I don’t see why people are so scared these days.

    Thisali

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  22. Hi Kristin,
    Its a blue.
    tongue lizard. we have them come to visit us sometime but we have to be careful because our dog doesn’t like them
    Cadence K

    Reply ↓

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