PIG & INK
  • Home
  • POEMS BY TITLE
  • BY 1st LINE
  • PILGRIMAGE
  • GUEST POEMS
  • PHOTOS
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
To the Snake
By Denise Levertov
 

Green Snake, when I hung you round my neck
and stroked your cold, pulsing throat
as you hissed to me, glinting
arrowy gold scales, and I felt
the weight of you on my shoulders,
and the whispering silver of your dryness
sounded close at my ears --
 
Green Snake — I swore to my companions that certainly
you were harmless! But truly
I had no certainty, and no hope, only desiring
to hold you, for that joy,
which left
a long wake of pleasure, as the leaves moved
and you faded into the pattern
of grass and shadows, and I returned
smiling and haunted, to a dark morning.
 


   © Stephen Hancock 2023                                                                                                                                                                Energy is Eternal Delight