Terzanelle To A Pet Cobra Poem by Gert Strydom

Within your exposed white fangs
I look into the abyss
where death hangs

and with a soft hiss
you come erect.
I look into the abyss

without my own neglect
with a deadly sting
you come erect

and I see friendship in the hissing thing
being a comrade in loneliness.
With a deadly sting,

spreading your hood to some as a token of holiness
you come to peace closing the recess
being a comrade in loneliness

and sail over me as if with a pre-creation caress.
Within your exposed white fangs
you come to peace closing the recess
where death hangs.

[Reference: To a pet Cobra by Roy Campbell.]