The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 12/21/07 Bonus

[BlueIris]

"She"

The snake hunts and sinews
his way along and is not his own
idea of viciousness. All he wants is
a fast grab, with fur and a rapid
pulse, so he can take that fluttering
and make it him, do a transfusion.
They say whip or rope about him, but this
does not give the idea; nor
phallus, which has no bones,
kills nothing, and cannot see.
The snake sees red, like a hand held
above sunburn. Zeroes in,
which means, aims for the round egg
with nothing in it but blood.
If lucky, misses the blade
slicing light just behind him.
He's our idea of a bad time, we are his.
I say he out of habit. It could be she.

—Margaret Atwood

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear BlueIris...

This is so evocative ...

The POV of a snake...

Just trying to survive, as we all are...

Thank you...

:hug:

[BlueIris]

2. Atwood's speaker's aim here is very snake-like as well.

The speaker doesn't reveal the purpose of this poem until the final lines.

[BlueIris]

3. Kick.

[RetroLounge]

4. 2 atwoods in one night...

:swoon:

RL

[BlueIris]

6. Atwood really is groovy tunes.

[ThomCat]

5. This is a really cool perspective piece

but I wish she had made it a bit longer and divided it into sections. There are several really good parts to this that could have been fleshed out a bit.

1 How the snake sees himself and what it wants.
2 What it perceives and what it does.
3 How we see the snake, misunderstand it and mistreat it.

Okay, that sounds more structured that what I actually think. I like the fluidness of this writing but think it could have been expanded.