Snakeskin

People mistake the shed skin
for the snake itself,
and while they pin it on the wall,
congratulate themselves,
the snake slithers away
to hide and wait.
But for the greatest fools -
the most lucky, the most doomed -
it comes again,
from behind this time.
Coiled spiral snaps unwinds,
strikes sharp straight into time,
sinks its teeth in,
injects its sacred poison.
Slow acting
it drives them crazy,
it gives no rest:
Liberated Fury
drives them relentlessly
along the vein
of an endless quest-ion.
 
















© 1996 cirque-samsara/nik beeson