Natrix Sepidon

Had it been up to me I’d have been a water snake
a Natrix Sepidon, the kind you rarely see for
they spend large quantities of time
under the water unlike those
land lubber snakes who
can only swim upon
the surface
I would
unabashedly
be free to be a
marauding predator
ambushing fish and frogs
and never grow old for who
ever heard of a snake dying
of old age…they just shed their
old skin and the shiny new scales
below gleam like the day they were born
I think mankind scorns snakes because they’re
jealous, but we wise serpents know better than most
how to keep a low profile and stay our of trouble and now
that I think of it a sea snake would be cool too hanging out
beneath the ocean with an oar shaped tail and the poison of
a cobra I’d congregate with my fellow serpents sun bathing at
the surface in the Indian Ocean rocked by the swell’s gentle motion
never to be crushed under foot by the ignorant who without arms and
legs would not swim or climb or glide or stay so shiny clean as our clan