TimeIsArt

Everything woke up dead this morning.
I’ve been sad too long to be sad or mad.
I just want to understand why,
And try to wake up alive tomorrow.
There but for grace go I.

The snake who chased and ate three mice
got caught in the knotted plastic fence
tangled with Vinca surrounding the garden.
Maybe by waiting instead of chasing the second mouse,
or maybe by slithering backwards instead of forwards after she found herself stuck,
she might have survived the gluttonous night.
But the gardener found her perilously ensnared, Dead.
Still digesting three mounds of her final supper. Fully dead.
Ten rattles, and a foamy mouth with two fangs inadequate
to bite through the plastic cords. Scarey dead,
As a ten year old still rattler looks, causing onlookers to keep a safe distance,
Still feeling the threat is not over, still hearing a rattle as the gardener digs
to settle the question with his shovel. Still dead.

I wonder what the snake knows of this story. What remains and what is gone?