! Ss For Ssnake Poem by Michael Shepherd

when it’s the s tucked away in ‘asleep’
in its s for secret hideaway
it feels s for safe and s for secure
though you can see it keeps
the s there just in case

now it’s waking up, uncoils itself;
it’s an awkward way that it has to move,
but it’s s for strong, as you’ll discover
if you hold one

if it feels threatened, my how it can move!
a rapid s for slither, or s for slip
into a drain or a hole in ground
quicker than an eyeblink

but if you catch it s for snoozing
and s for sunning itself, as adders like to do,
and it’s too late to s for slide away,
then it’ll hiss at you with a long ss…

to let you know that that there’s an s
in ‘fangs’ and in ‘poison’…
(and also, by god’s grace, in ‘serum’…)

so let it be, like the s wrapped in ‘respect’
to enjoy its s for self, the s for same as you…

(Don’t you wonder, if snakes themselves hear that s
when they slither or slip or slide their way
through the grasss or leavesss or stonesss
and know, that’s my own s for sound…
because I’m an s for snake…?)

Now it's feeling s for strangely
s for slippery, inside itself...
oh look, it's going to s for shed
its s for skin...why, I do believe
it's turned into a... poem!
Now it can see and hear itself!
ssssssssssssssssssssssssss
there's a snakeskin belt for you