Good Morning!
It's time to gather together for a bit of poetry. Yesterday I mentioned a new-to-me poet I had discovered: David Bottoms. Here is one of the poems from his book "Otherworld, Underworld, Prayer Porch."
AN OLD ENEMY by David Bottoms
Just past midnight when I walked out back to piss in the yard
I saw at my feet
in a patch of moonlight
the old enemy coiled on the root of a cherry tree.
It didn’t rattle or move, and I thought it might be dead,
then the fat tail twitched
as a slight wind washed the root with shadows.
I backed away slowly, looking for the shovel
I kept leaning against the fence.
It wasn’t there. So thinking omen, I left the snake
and walked back into the house.
This morning I saw my mistake. A rope the tree trimmers
left last week
lay draped across the root of the cherry.
Omen? Maybe. But no mistake.
In deep memory the danger remains –
the fat rope
coiled and ready to strike.
