A viper's mouth, in livid blossom,
weighs a thin stalk with its gape -
yet not a flower, for no sweet scent
expired from that untender chasm
come-hithering with its sticky pink
where boys played rough-house on backroads,
who, freckled in plaid flannel, snapped
green sticks for lesser snakes to drink.
For death, it seemed, breathed out that maw
(that looked like what could push life out
and draw life in), and we'd but squirmed
like hands through sleeves and, walloped, cawed
in ignorance beyond such bloom.
Years later we're sedate and gaze
and what repelled us once, that yawn
that draws us to its fecund loam.
Now even its image stays and calms,
be it rose-petaled or serpent-toothed.
In time all wiser Adams know
that what's come-hithered soon just comes.
weighs a thin stalk with its gape -
yet not a flower, for no sweet scent
expired from that untender chasm
come-hithering with its sticky pink
where boys played rough-house on backroads,
who, freckled in plaid flannel, snapped
green sticks for lesser snakes to drink.
For death, it seemed, breathed out that maw
(that looked like what could push life out
and draw life in), and we'd but squirmed
like hands through sleeves and, walloped, cawed
in ignorance beyond such bloom.
Years later we're sedate and gaze
and what repelled us once, that yawn
that draws us to its fecund loam.
Now even its image stays and calms,
be it rose-petaled or serpent-toothed.
In time all wiser Adams know
that what's come-hithered soon just comes.
