<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Snake<\/strong><\/p>\n Arriving in my garden at noon, Snakes are the souls of old men turned green I looked deep into its eyes. Flowers, guarding it, protectively leaned over its muscular coils, The snake controlled time. Strangling it to death. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Stanley Wilkin<\/strong> is a lecturer now living in Portugal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Snake Arriving in my garden at noon, Uncoiling it settled to catch the sun, I opened the veranda door and stared motionless At it, afraid. Flicking its tongue out towards me as a warning It lifted its head and spat Challenging me to step out, step Away from the gloom and walk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19633"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19873,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19633\/revisions\/19873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nUncoiling it settled to catch the sun,
\nI opened the veranda door and stared motionless
\nAt it, afraid. Flicking its tongue out towards me as a warning
\nIt lifted its head and spat
\nChallenging me to step out, step
\nAway from the gloom and walk into the speckled light.<\/p>\n
\nWho loathe learning and courage; they lie
\nWaiting to ambush the young destroying hope
\nWith venom. Their heads rise from the shadows
\nCurious in the rising heat. They need the sun
\nWith the same conviction that vampires avoid it.<\/p>\n
\nI knew it was thinking. It was indeed
\nWeighing up the odds. Was I too big to kill, too bony
\nTo eat? It moved its automaton\u2019s head from side to side
\nJudging angles and perspective, considering
\nA strike. It flicked out its tongue as if to taste
\nMy blood, absorb my sinews, ingest my muscle
\nAnd swallow my remains.<\/p>\n
\nSinking their petals into its skin;
\nFrom a distance, like me, a monkey watched
\nIts movements as if mesmerised too.
\nI thought of throwing a sack over its laptop eyes
\nAnd stuffing its cold strong coils in it but the snake,
\nReading my thoughts, held me in its powerful gaze
\nAs if warning me against foolhardy acts. Our stares mutually locked
\nWe spent the day in silent combat, barely moving.<\/p>\n
\nFor all there, time had stopped. Only our lungs moved.
\nEventually, bored with the stand-off, re-energised by the sun
\nThe snake extended its jaw, its scimitar fangs slicing
\nUs apart as it slowly swallowed the universe.<\/p>\n