Black Water Snake
Muladhara: Watersnake
You can blame it on the asshole uncle
who killed the Northern Watersnake
for no reason, snatching it by the tail
and thrashing her head against a rock.
Kids screamed and cleared the beach
where she whipped in knots by my feet.
Pinned to my towel by primal panic,
my bathing suit soaked hot with piss.
The snake musked to defend herself —
brown lacquer smeared across the beach.
The smell unstuck me. From the safety of
the lake, I watched her slacken on her back.
Underwater, I hexed his rotten hand,
burbled an abjuration before he brought
the rusted box saw from his truck —
Become the door he cannot shut.
She heard. Left before he stole her head.
Sidewinding through mid-summer heat,
she stopped above me, reared to strike
but dove instead. Entering through my
crown, she wound down my spine,
coiled tight within the darkling bowl
between my callow hips. Still there,
she thickens, unspooling to slough
skins grown thin, husks collecting along shores of bone —
proof of every rotten fuck, outgrown.
Svadhisthana: Honey Bee
My waggle-dance lands you in my fronds.
After, you stay in bed to read about Lenin.
I take a French shower, swipe lipstick and kohl,
head out for the primal sting of a stiff drink.
Foraging for sweetness, I’ll dance with anyone —
hothouse exotic, houseplant, wildflower, weed.
Slick with sweat, I’ll boogie ‘til ungodly hours
then Uber home, shoulders dusted with gold.
Manipura: Horse
Cheeky cowgirl swilling rotgut,
burning cigarillos at the bar.
Untacked, 10-gallon hat, can-can
corkscrew in crotchless pantalettes.
Big brio, bare-assed, knockin’ boots
in the boneyard, mooning the moon.
Anahata: Horseshoe Crab
450 million years old,
the horseshoe crab survived
the giant asteroid that
wiped out the dinosaurs.
Their bright blue blood
sells for $15,000 a quart.
Essential to IV drugs
and vaccine safety,
specialized cells trap bacteria
trap bacteria that would rather kill us.
Once, at Thomas Point, nipping whiskey
to numb a broken heart — a treasure!
An American soldier’s helmet, WWII,
certainly worth some money!
Nope.
Horseshoe crab. Telson pointing at me.
Armor is pointless if there’s nothing good to protect.
Vishuddha: Skunk
The bitchy nun who told me to pipe down
and cross my legs got sprayed, point blank.
I’m no Virgin Mary, lady. I’m Pepé Le Pew!
Ajna: Hawk
“A mind that’s all logic
is a knife that’s all blade”
invokes Red-tailed
and Sharp-Shinned,
the Cooper’s hawk
that whistled over us
to snatch the
peeping chick.
We didn’t know the
hawk was up there,
surveilling the coop
while we vaped
Baby Yoda, kvetching
about the domestic —
how it can vine
if left unpruned,
turn a sunny glade
to a bitchy thicket.
Exhaling, we swore to
keep the shears sharp
when a vector of feather
cleaved the sky in two.
Sahasrara: Great Blue Heron
Ferme la bouche.
Shut the fuck up.
Stop and listen.
A song on the wind.
Hold still. Wait.
Now — snatch it!
Great Blue Heron spears
Northern Watersnake.
Eats her,
head first.
By tail, the snake’s scales
would shred heron’s throat.
The beginning — always
swallowed by the end.