Florida's Indigo Snake
Eight Feet of Wonder
My first story narrated the life of a drymarchon couperi, an eastern indigo snake Florida’s serpentine wonder whose eight foot long chassis moves along without wheels only a red under- belly to the ground a flickering tongue tasting sounds as she feels with her coal black scales all prisms of light— shields and rainbows— oily slick yet dry to the touch her massive muscles claw the pavement to cross the street before the F-150 pickup truck barrels through on its way home after lunch at the brewery just enough beer to dull the senses and reaction time— it takes a stubborn sandhill crane who thinks she owns the road to wake the man from his stupor who slams his brakes for our indigo snake before she breaks on through to the other side
The visceral effect of this poem is impressive.