Braided into the honeysuckle that chokes the hedge
You’ve chosen to trim today under full sun
And with a fool’s determination to finish quickly,
A garter snake unlaces the vines and slips
Yellow blades across the greenest new growth
To open a portal into which it plunges.
There might be, for all you know, a space
Of undisturbed joy beneath its disappearance,
One that accommodates delight such as this—
The finding of little serpents—and welcomes
Dawdlers who settle for description:
Sleek surety, black curl, delicate ancient tongue.
-Derek Furr
Derek Furr is the author of two mixed-genre collections, ‘Suite For Three Voices’ and ‘Semitones,’ both with Fomite Press. He has work forthcoming in “Raritan” and “American Literary History.” He teaches literature and directs the MAT Program at Bard College in New York.