ESP.LITERATURE

sprawled on hot canyon sand

drowsy, riverlap, shimmering

rockwall, sundappled

weeks since i have spoken to another.

i sing to hear a voice.

i doze, i sleep, i hear

three-forks wrangler

under a big grinning hat

with a diamondback hatband,

an eagle feather, and a chaw

‘high water,’ he says, ‘big snakes,

you’d best know how to cut and suck, boy.’

laughing little teeth

pale gummed

kilt hunnerts

sprawled naked on coarse sand

sun sweat hot, riverlap, rockwall

appears a snake from shade to sun

i see the scales tilt and bend as its skin pushes across the sand

i see its sliteye its tongueflick its thick dappled body its rattle

its smooth sinuous trace from willowshoot to riverside

drowsy grinning three forks wrangler cut and suck

cut and run cut and suck cut and run

riverlap, rockwall, shimmering

lissome snake to river to drink

me rising slowly, heart pound, breathless, naked,

shade of rockwall, watching …

snake come gliding back

across my hollow form

stopping, tongue flick

slowly to a flat coil

pale mouth yawning arc of teeth tongue flick

snake dozing on coarse canyon sand dusk

coiled wrangler’s hatband sprawled

drowsy, riverlap, shimmering

rockwall, sundappled.

i squat in shade to sing softly the snake.

1977 / 2026

and some dabbling in between