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Thursday, April 25, 2013

April Anomalies A-Z: Viper



“There is no head worse than the head of a serpent...” Sirach 25: 15


The shudder is involuntary
when the serpent strikes from the fire;
the apostle is bitten
and the viper glides away.

They hatch the viper’s egg
and spin a spider’s web;
the prophet is stricken
when the viper has his way.

Through a wilderness wide of terror
waterless wastes where scorpions and serpents
crawl among the rocks and sand and dust,
and on shipwrecked shores
from where there will be no escape,

The shudder is involuntary;
when the venom is injected
the flesh swells up and blackens
as the viper glides away.


This is part of April Anomalies A-Z, a creative writing exercise and not intended to be an altogether accurate picture of the creature described above. 

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