I Watch It Wiggle
in the garden
where there once was a Veronica plant.
No real connection
between the plant's death
and the snake's animated life.
It is innocuous, I’m sure.
but I’m not convinced enough to touch it.
It is beautifully patterned
in shades of tan – light to dark,
and a bit geometric.
tiny,
yet,
it arouses memories
of the much larger reptile
that coiled around my leg years ago
when I accidentally stepped on it
in the tall grass of a field.
I did not harm it,
and it moved on.
I move on.
Nancy Jo Allen was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and now lives in Columbia, Missouri, with her husband Terry and their pup Jayden. Her poetry collections, Wrinkles in Time and in Love, Wild and Tame, and Darkness and Light are available through Kelsay Books and Amazon.
See more of her work in 13.1 and 12.1 and 9.4 and 9.4 and 8.4 and 8.4 and 4.2 and The Pocket Poems Anthology