Desert Oracle Radio, the voice of the desert.

Night has fallen on the desert.

In these early and still wintry nights of spring.

But the northern hemisphere has passed through the vernal equinox.

And now it is springtime, officially.

When the days are sunny, I hear it in the joyful noise of the songbirds.

I see it in the return of old man lizard.

The footlong desert spiny lizard who graciously shares the patio with me,

and has emerged from wherever he slumbers through the coldest months.

I was especially grateful for his return because I'd seen a long, hate-filled centipede testing the patio door for a way in, just the

other night.

And then, just last night, after I returned home, and reach for the kitchen light switch,

my fingers brush something moving up the wall.

Along the edge of the cabinet,

four inches of pure biological sin.

They wanted to fight me, like all of them.

No point trying to get it into a water glass so I could throw it across the neighbor's fence.

What I had to do was kill it before it disappeared into the walls, under the cabinets,

into the sofa, into the bedding.

Otherwise, if it was female and who can tell, it would lay at 60 or so eggs.

Think about that for a minute, if you can. Do they bite? Well, yes, they bite, and it hurts like hell too.

A big one can tear up the end of your finger or toe enough to cause an infection.

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