Deanne Patterson

“The Black Snake"

When the black snake
flashed onto the morning road,
and the truck could not swerve--
death, that is how it happens.

Now he lies looped and useless
as an old bicycle tire.
I stop the car
and carry him into the bushes.

He is as cool and gleaming
as a braided whip, he is as beautiful and quiet
as a dead brother.
I leave him under the leaves

and drive on, thinking
about death: its suddenness,
its terrible weight,
its certain coming. Yet under

reason burns a brighter fire, which the bones
have always preferred.
It is the story of endless good fortune.
It says to oblivion: not me!

It is the light at the center of every cell.
It is what sent the snake coiling and flowing forward
happily all spring through the green leaves before
he came to the road.

Mary Oliver, Twelve Moons. (Back Bay Books August 30, 1979)”
― Mary Oliver, Twelve Moons

“Would you kiss me?"

"...yeah”
― Alice Oseman, Heartstopper: Volume One

“Go, and be as the butterfly”
― Jan Karon, At Home in Mitford

“This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it!”
― Psalms 118:24