Planet Snake 

On Planet Snake live crayfish, frogs, fish and birds, 
rats and mice and lizards.  Prey all, all pray that 
the ends of their lives will be in the belly of 
Snake for such an end holds more dignity for them 
than to rot under sun and over sand.  Each wishes to be 
in Snake but none of them wants to die.  On Planet Snake 
there also lives Snake.  There are no pachyderms of 
Planet Snake.  Planet Snake stays 95 degrees Fahrenheit 
year 'round even when it rains.  It rains every time 
Snake dances.  Snake prepares himself for the dance 
by serenely washing himself in sacred water, rolling and basking 
until he understands that ritual has its own meaning. 
He then dries in colored sand, spirals around tree trunks, 
writhes in ecstasy in bird feathers, and rests by a brook. 
Snake then listens to his heart and crawls in that heartfelt 
direction to communicate with the kachinas, the spirits 
of those ancestors who seem to have a way with rain.  It works 
every time.  Rain gives life to the other inhabitants of Planet 
Snake.  Snake knows what he is doing.   

Snake not only makes rain.  Snake hunts.  Look!  On the ground 
you can see his head like a snorkel above the leaves.   
Now sneaking smoothly through the thicket, up a tree, 
and coiling a limb, Snake coils to a limb of another tree 
and starts back down before he's finished going up.  Snake 
comes to a clearing - his favorite and most challenging 
snare.  He has come to snatch a bird.  Snake 
and the bird stare at each other for three intense months. 
This is delightful suspense for Snake.  The bird 
is fat with a snack of choice worms and bugs. 
Snake snickers.  Finally, the bird leaps for the air, 
the only safe haven from Snake.  Snake also leaps 
in the direction he anticipated.  He glides 
through the perfect air in a perfect leap 
that takes glorious years to complete. 
Each knows they will meet in about two feet. 
In perfect grace, Snake tastes flight, 
tastes feathers, and ever so slowly lands - 
satisfied in a fine fine way. 

Snake also comes female.  She charms him with her swaying 
motion.  He, too, sways.  And swoons.  He and she give, 
in their courting and snuggling, a new meaning to the word 
'hug.'  Together, their scales vibrate heavenly with ecstatic 
monotony.  Snake is potent.  Snake gives life. 
Snake has babies.  Each baby is Snake. 

Snake, as a dozen babies, relearns and appreciates 
the satisfaction of perfect muscle coordination 
in moving dozens of pairs of ribs like endlessly repeating 
dominoes to traverse, equally well, water, trees, 
bush, sand, and snow.  Snake, as a dozen babies, 
snoozes limp and tangled, in a perfectly satisfying pile. 
Snake rests. Snake must prepare for tomorrow. 

Others fear Snake but Snake has fears as well. 
He feels them not in his tail but in the forward most 
tip of his tongue.  Snake doesn't know exactly of what 
he and she are afraid but Snake feels vulnerable. 
Snake is ready to face his fears.  Snake is real. 

Snake molts, sheds a layer of his superficiality 
through his favorite hole in the rock and reveals 
his snazzy new skin to begin again.  He is like a C sharp 
in a new chord.  New and improved Snake. 
On another planet, this would be like buying a new car. 
Over eons, molted skin accumulates into an expansive 
translucent maze for Baby Snake.  Baby Snake, 
with the kachinas, never gets bored. 

Snake is introspective.  Snake is Ouroboros and forms circles 
with his bodies.  Across the land on each full moon, circles 
can be seen from horizon ad infinitum.  His heads bite 
his tails to honor the seasons, to honor the cycles of life, 
to honor the ancestors and to celebrate the shape of the sacred 
Planet Snake.  Snake relaxes sinuously in deep reverence 
for the mysteries of life.  Do not disturb. 
 

Ed Tedrow 

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