Seventeen Snake Vignettes

1. A single bird chirps at dawn while a new snake breaks through its soft white shell and uncoils its strong body. With the instincts of all the snakes born before, it slithers forward confident but vulnerable, down a path of its own choosing. 

2. It’s everyone’s breakfast time and a snake knows hunger. It follows its senses for nourishment and uses its natural given strengths to capture and devour what it needs for survival.

3. On a slow summer day, a snake rests peacefully as still as the shadow that cools it. It frightens a person who lays eyes upon it. They gasp and run away from the snake. The snake has done nothing but be its self.

4. The hot sun shines and a snake finds a calm lake that is just the right temperature. It revels in its glorious freedom as it glides on water. It creates S shapes that ripple upon the surface and the sun glints off its wet scales.

5. A snake cleverly makes a pile of cut logs its shelter and waits for more food to arrive. Its temporary home has many entrances and exits but stays put for the time being. 

6. Adventure awaits a snake that searches for a different landscape, a different terrain; narrowly escaping a speeding vehicle as it bravely crosses the dirt road. 

7. Two children meandering through wet, tall grass find a snake. It is taken to back to their home to be watched and handled. It escapes its glass box and wanders the walled rooms looking for green. 

8. Keeping to itself, a snake camouflages into the dusty brown earth but bites the ankle of an unexpected hiker who has walked too close. It protects itself.

9. Clearly anxious, a snake paces back and forth inside its artificial habitat in anticipation of a group of children and parents to arrive in the nature center. The room becomes loud; louder than its natural habitat.  

10. Inside a tall woven basket, a snake has been kept and trained to charm and do tricks. Its daily antics provide monetary rewards for its owner. 

11. A particularly pretty looking snake is provided with meals in return for being entertainment at parties, slinking around the arms of its handler; it is stripped of its right to act like a true snake and to hunt its own meal. 

12. Older and wiser, a snake hibernates under a large rock. It knows to be patient, that there is a right time for everything. It is in tune with natures cycles. 

13. Mid-life, a snake sheds its dry coil of old skin. The people who come across the remnants are left with many questions and the wonder of nature.

14. A thin snake wears bright colors to warn you of it's deadly poison and crosses paths with a thick snake who wears neutrals and conveniently blends in.

15. It is evening and getting dark. It is wise to listen to a snake who rattles its tail. It would rather keep to itself but warns that it will use its venom if provoked further.

16. In the cool of the night, a snake enraptured will coil itself around the thing it desires and will not relent. 

17. Under a bright full moon, a snake wriggles out of its old dry scales to reveal its slick, fresh skin. With the instincts of all the snakes re-born before, it slithers forward confidently with its new vulnerable body down a path of its own choosing. 



Beauty is Everywhere. 


-Holly