SNAKES

Slither: does it say everything?
Encapsulate the snake experience?
Conjure up a slippery way of life?
Muscular smoothness: glide and cling,
Wind and twist, or weave a waving dance,
Or vanish through the leafmould like a knife.

In speed and silence: Gone!
And leaves a gap – but no gap! – Was it there?
Still as a photograph. No movement! None!
The eery glide vanished in thin air.

But when the chill slows the lonely slither:
Clinging closeness of the hibernating heap
In sibling comfort. Above, the leaves wither;
Contented tangle of the winter sleep.