SNAKE EATER

my parents dragged the buffalo down
the basement steps
to let it bleed on a queen-
sized mattress

I’m left in the sun
with the rusty red truck
and the fat flies

all the children
from my neighborhood have gathered
on the sidewalk
holding gourd shakers
(last week’s craft project)

they tell me they’ve voted me out--
they’re rattlers now
and I’m too much of a king
snake--a damned snake eater

I’m suddenly a child
from a particular family

but I don’t back down

a blue crow lands on my shoulder
licking the crevices
of my smile

####

Michael Spring is Azorean-Portuguese, Choctaw and Irish, which might explain his love of surrealism.

He lives in Corvallis, Oregon where he's the poetry editor for a local art center paper. He is also coordinator for DaVinci Days Art and Science Festival.

He currently works in a group home for mentally and physically disabled adults.

He has poems forthcoming in ATLANTA REVIEW, MIDWEST QUARTERLY, BLACK BEAR REVIEW and SULPHUR RIVER LITERARY REVIEW.

He was Fishtrap, Inc's Writer In Residence in 2000, and currently completed a book of poems.

You can reach him at Bluecrow04@cs.com.

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