I asked you if you liked wildflowers

& you said yes & then the devil got into me

& and I asked you if you liked snakes

& then we could not hold the planets in their circuits

for our fear of each other—you like serpents,

I pray rope not to come alive

& we love wildflowers not enough

to get by what winds in them.

You could have waffled but thought it important not to,

I could have lied, and there is the glory of snakes,

how hard it is to lie about them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Jon Nelson on flickr