Poem for a Fall Day


Written on a fall day several years ago, and published 2 or 3 years ago in Stringtown.




THE FIRST TEMPTATION

The dog caught a snake and my girls forgot
about picking blackberries. A garter snake,

ten or eleven inches long, green,
a pair of brown stripes down its back.

They teased the dog away and captured it,
all nerve, its single tendon tight as a blade.

It wrapped itself around their wrists, flicked
its tongue. They carried the snake

all afternoon, trading it from arm to arm
to arm, the most tempting of bracelets.

Comments

  1. HI BETHANY - WONDERFUL POEM ABOUT THE SNAKE. MY MOTHER HAD A PET SNAKE OF SORTS IN ONE OF HER MANY FLOWER BEDS. SHE WOULD PET IT AND TALK TO IT - I NEVER DID WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH THAT SNAKE, ONLY THE FROGS. LOVE, CAROLYNNE

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  2. could that be because frogs eat snakes, and vice versa?????

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  3. "... all nerve..." I love that.

    Is it okay to feel sorry for the snake, because he could not know what his fate was going to be from moment to moment all afternoon? Or do snakes not experience anxiety and adrenaline rushes? You notice I don't assume it could recognize the girls were friendly the way a mammal would....

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  4. I think it's wonderful that I have a friend who would feel sorry for the snake. But the girls did save his life! In the true story, they let him go after about an hour, and he slithered off into the bushes.

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