POEM – IN DEFENCE OF THE SERPENTS

Is it something about the way they move,

Their side to side wiggling and writhing,

Subtly suggestive of unchaste intent,

That makes you abhor the serpents so?

 

Is it their power to move limblessly,

Amongst the grass undetected,

In a manner unnatural to us,

That makes you spite the ophidians so?

 

Is it their smooth scaly skin,

Lacking warmth and fur, as you prefer,

Or their Biblical association with Satan,

That makes you condemn the colubrids so?

 

Is it their lack of facial expression,

Which defy your craving for the cute & cuddly,

And focus instead on raw survival,

That makes you distrust the nāgas so?

 

Is it that some are armed with deadly venom,

Or that some are large enough to swallow you whole,

Or that some can hug you to death,

That makes you fear all snakes so?

 

Fear them not; they want to survive

Just as us. They seldom bring us harm,

They don’t know better but we do.

So leave them be why don’t you?

 

You have but slight knowledge of them;

You think their bone-dry skin is slimy!

Yet you insist on hating them.

Is that not a bigot’s ways?

 

We’re the newest species on the planet

And we have done much to ruin it.

Humans, not the serpents, are the devils;

How then have they earned our hatred?

 

Could it be that snakes are just scapegoats

Bearing the brunt of blunt bully’s anger?

Do you hate them because you really hate

The evils that reside in… you?

 

© ONE TAWNY STRANGER 2012