Jade Hurter
The Snake
Hold your tongue, and let me love
From John Donne's "The Canonization"
One morning Mother caught you in the roses
cradling a snake, rocking and rocking.
She tore it from your arms, thrashed it dead
and who knows whether it did or did not bite.
Scrubbed your tongue over the kitchen sink
with Dawn. You gagged and gagged.
That night we snuck into the garden, found the snake,
a smooth corpse. Stuffed a crabapple in its mouth.
The sour juice sparked. Small fangs dimmed.
The moon was balsamic. We unspooled.
Jade Hurter is the author of the chapbook Slut Songs (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2017). She was a finalist in the 2016 Tennessee Williams Poetry Contest, judged by Yusef Komunyakaa, and her work has appeared in The Columbia Poetry Review, Glass, Passages North, New South, Menacing Hedge, and elsewhere.
Return to July 2018 Edition
Hold your tongue, and let me love
From John Donne's "The Canonization"
One morning Mother caught you in the roses
cradling a snake, rocking and rocking.
She tore it from your arms, thrashed it dead
and who knows whether it did or did not bite.
Scrubbed your tongue over the kitchen sink
with Dawn. You gagged and gagged.
That night we snuck into the garden, found the snake,
a smooth corpse. Stuffed a crabapple in its mouth.
The sour juice sparked. Small fangs dimmed.
The moon was balsamic. We unspooled.
Jade Hurter is the author of the chapbook Slut Songs (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2017). She was a finalist in the 2016 Tennessee Williams Poetry Contest, judged by Yusef Komunyakaa, and her work has appeared in The Columbia Poetry Review, Glass, Passages North, New South, Menacing Hedge, and elsewhere.
Return to July 2018 Edition