In an Indiana Forest

Mary O’Dell

 

On the first of April

a blacksnake lies on a rafter

of the picnic pavilion

tasting the air.

Thin as a hose, she reaches up and up

then retracts into fat curls

letting her exquisite head droop

to peer down at a stocky blonde woman

who shudders and hurries away

trailed by her grinning, pigtailed man.

As they climb aboard their grumbling cycle

and head off down the curvy road

we turn back to the sinuous presence

stunned by beauty

kept there by silent whispers

skin on skin.

 

   


Mary O'Dell is president of Green River Writers, Inc., a 23-year-old non-profit organization in Kentucky.  Two volumes of her poetry have been published:  Poems for the  Man Who Weighs Light (Edwin Mellen  Press, 1999) and A Dangerous Man (Edwin Mellen Press, 2003)  and a chapbook, A Dangerous Man (Finishing Line Press, 2003). 

 

 

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