Hoop Snake (by Rebecca Wee)
he told me about the hoop snake
(temporal, exquisite,
a godless man
so I listened)
we weren't sure though
if it could be true
a snake that takes its tail in its mouth
then rolls through the world
but there are reasons to believe in god
and this seems a good one
we brought wine to the porch, spoke
of piety, marriage,
devotion assumed for reasons
that could not sustain it
while lightning took apart the sky
the fields leapt up the stream's
muddy lustre its sinuous length
liminal, lush, the grass black
the unheard melodies and those that catch
the leaves beginning to fret
I don't remember now what he said his eyes
revising that dark
after he left I walked through the grass the rain
asked how do things work?
we are after something miraculous
we open our mouths we believe
we turn
at times
we gather speed
I found a few references to hoop snake- legendary Greek mythological creature "Ouroboros" that symbolizes "introspection, the eternal return or cyclicality,[4] especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself. It also represents the infinite cycle of nature's endless creation and destruction, life and death and despair."
ReplyDeleteI love the last four lines of this poem. It makes you tap into the side of imagination that remains curious.
Miracles justify the belief in the miraculous and thus the evidence for God. If you don't believe in miracles than the evidence becomes stories, legends, and myths.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people want and need these examples