From Animaux venimeux et venins: la fonction venimeuse chez tous les animaux, 1922
Digital image courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library
I find a rattlesnake in the morning
coiled on my porch, rattle raised & shaking
& remember last night.
M messaged asking how long a crush lasted.
I forgot to answer
her question before asking,
when I moved did I take all our stories with me?
She didn’t reply,
but American Football’s “Never Meant”
is the first song on a playlist she made me.
My mom used to tell me
everything dangerous sounds
like something familiar.
Even a tornado
reminds me of trains passing at night
behind my grandmother’s house.
Even a crush is a rattlesnake, tail
deep in its own gullet.
Most people don’t know the snake’s rattle
sounds like flowing water
from a garden hose
until they’re bit.