6 August 18 – The Snake, the Frog, and Me

The Forest is a busy place, and I find I am writing poems more and more about all the activity and those who create it. So many events arise here. For example, “Red Dog,” from 11 June speaks about a cheeky hummingbird; “Goose Walking,” presented in two parts (June 18 and 25) arose from simply watching a goose meander down a secluded Forest road. And of course, the Raven poems about my totem spirit who daily comes to visit in the pines around us.

Today’s poem arose from an encounter – a smaller one to be sure – yet just as significant and noteworthy in its own life-expressing way. The poem speaks to the almost daily effort that all creatures put forth to eat and stay alive. I quote from a recent post by Wannaska Writer:

Every day, the two-legged knew, was all about eating for everything on earth. Life circled around it. Nothing was done without it, nothing lived long without it. Eating was everything's everything.

The emphasis is mind: “Eating was everything’s everything.” Pause for thought, as today’s poem speaks directly to that observation. Every living thing must consume nourishment, including almost all plants that devour light and sip water at every opportunity. (Exceptions do apply.) Whether gorging on abundance, or subsisting on a monkish bowl of daily rice, eating is one of the more ubiquitous activities of all life.

The Snake, the Frog, and Me

Wispy rustle through low grass under summer leaves

                                                too close to ground for bird

                                                tremor too soft for squirrel

                                    I intrude under ferns –  rustling quickens

                                                kneeling in Forest shade I find the stricken

                                                one leg’s skin stripped down to bone

                                    Leaning closer I see it cannot leap away

                                                Rippled skin greenish gray – 

three dark stripes paint its lovely trembling back

                                    Closer still and quietly as I can

                                                more rustling – a quivering shudder within this smallness

                                                and still no attempt to leave

                                    Now an urge to stroke this broken one

                                                but all I do is peer – 

I intrude untimely but with small insult

                                    Mesmerized by the tiny beating heart

                                                at first, I do not hear the other ripple amid the grass and needles

                                                Bending closer still – lower than the grass

                                                I strain to discover this new creature’s faintest movement

                                    Asudden I am eye to eye with corpse-still other

                                                dark lidless eyes stare intent and blankly

                                                red tongue flicks out of slender head

                                                two bright yellow stripes arrow down three feet

                                                to tapered tail

                                    I almost startle but hold composure

                                                I expect twisting coils to exit quickly

                                                but not a flinch of scaly skin, nor blink of eye

                                                Tongue flicks out again – a predator’s warning

                                                head turns slightly revealing mouth wider than its body

                                    So entranced by ancient fear of snake

                                                For the moment, I fixate on the coils

                                                and the violated frog flees my thoughts

                                                but not so for snake’s riveted attention

                                                both deep in survival trance – to eat and to be eaten

                                    Snake’s intention firms and it finally makes its move

                                                a lightning slither – slight lift of head

                                                jaws open – plunge deeply into amphibian’s back

                                    

                                    eeeeeehh!

                                    piercing cry of fear not pain – a minor chorus calling out the oldest game

                                    strange chilling and so pitifully unwilling – tiny legs spread wide and kicking

                                    slender leg and tailbone already severed – all hopping a thing of weedy dreams

                                    Snake’s focus now all on hunger

                                                lifts up for final jaw lock on frog head

                                    Imagine horror of being eaten headfirst with broken back and useless limbs

                                    Now nearly inside reptile mouth – wider than itself – the meal begun

                                    I interfere once more – frog’s voice too hard to hear

I lightly stick-poke snake’s middle side

                                    but no mind it pays, frog shoulders disappearing

                                    Stupidly, I must have my way, interfering with this most natural scene

                                                                        of predator and prey

                                                                                    anyway

                                    I reach taking snake’s body above its tail

                                    and shake and flick it to cause release of frog

                                    and my tactic works as snake opens jaws and lets it fall

                                    

                                    What was I thinking!?

                                    Frog’s body just assaulted yet again

                                    Death not “if” but only when

Background

I walked along one of the Forest trails radiating from our log cabin in Beltrami Forest. Birches lined the path on both sides. To the south, a muddy pond rested as still as a smooth, reflective mirror.  Behind me, to the west, our cabin, and straight ahead, our neighbor’s property that included a sizeable pond which I meant to walk around with Willa, my German Shepherd. Then, to my left, I heard the smallest sound – that sound beings the poem. If you’ve read this far in the post, you know the rest of the story.

I am continually startled by the abundance of living going on around us – a condition not fully shared in our cities, despite the birds, rodents, raccoons, and the growing prevalence of wiley coyotes. 

Explorations

Exploration 1: What is your reaction when you read the description of being eaten head first? If the feeling makes you uncomfortable, is the feeling innate or learned?

Exploration 2: What is your opinion of the poet’s several interferences, especially the final one?

Exploration 3: Why is it we may feel disgust or horror when observing non-human beings as prey and predator, yet we, ourselves, typically eat other sentient beings without a quiver of conscience?

Your Monday Poet, Jack Pine Savage