Snakes

Bats and rats and wolves and mice
And SNAKES all get bad press
MOsquito’s Fleas and wasps
And crocodiles they need redress
Negative connotations
Levelled at people, hurt
And similarly for animals
That crawl down in the dirt
Legless lidless lateral thinkers
Snaking through the grass
Meandering and undulating
Quietly as we pass

Unknowingly they quietly go
Gently on their way
Or are holed up in their burrows
Where they pass their nights away
They really live a secret life
In the winter months they hide
In a burrow underground
And when the sun comes up
They slide

Quietly through the litter
And watch the Spring flowers bloom
Observing the colourful butterflies
Absorbing the perfume
Subtle but its clearly there
To open the psychic soul
And engage their wings
To greater things
To take on their given role

Behold the grass snake slithers
With yellow markings on its hea
into mass mating orgies
Thats what I’ve been led
To believe and after that embrace
Is A solitary soul
No venom just a gentle writhe
And back down in its hole

Remember snakes have lidless eyes
They never ever blink
Their darting tongue
Is not aggression
Which some people think
Its a way to smell their victims
Its a way to smell the air
Its an ignorance on our part
And proves we do not care

Grass snakes take a dip
And can smell underwater
Frogs and toads are fair game
And Snakes will not give them a quarter
They are very very practical
And their silence is their strength
Their skin is perfect camouflage
Right throughout its length

In the water snakes must take care
For otters are about
Apart from fish and crabs and mussels
The snake must have no doubt
The otter isn’t timid
And snakes have no defence
Apart from being careful
Or they will become past tense

Grass snakes lay eggs 40 or 50
In rotting vegetation
They use composted heat
To guarantee creation
The eggs are soft with indentations
On them and we see
Them broken from the inside
The new born escapee

The Aesculapian isnt venenomous
But its history is long
The Greeks and the Romans
Mythology was always rather strong
On this bronzy dark metallic flush
Long and slender soul
Birds and birds eggs
Domestic rats Are their favourite
goal

They do not like wet or watery
They like a rocky place
Trees they climb up
Which is clever
The goldfinch and her brace
Might find them torn a’sunder
At any given time
Even domesticated
So worthy of a rhyme

The adder or the viper
Will climb and tend to be
Even in the mountains
You can see the vertical V
With a wavy ribbon of darkness
On the back of their head
They mate in May
And dance some say
And love mice in their bed

hedgehogs present a challenge
The venom on its spines
Will make not a shade of difference
No matter how many times
The snake strikes out
And what will happen
The snake does gets
grief
Its absolutely a waste of time
And does beggar belief

The females are brown to copper
The males are rather grey
Sometimes vipers can be black
It happens so they say
Some genetic imbalance
Like albino similarly
And it isn’t more aggressive
Thats a travesty

Smooth snakes have round eyes
And they hunt lizards when they can
They are like a mini python
The big squeeze that is their plan

The Dice snake another harmless soul
To humans
In its defense it secretes a rotten smell
From Out of its cloaka
You would have to be a joker
It also plays dead
Like a bat from hell

It swims and likes to be
Under the water
Walking on the bottom
And it dives
Unconstructed banks
And flowing water
Clean and pristine
Is where it survives

It has a powerful grip
And swallows fishes whole
Flexible jaws unlock
And re adjust
In 2009 was endangered reptile of the year
Pollution is fhat factor that does bust

25 eggs again laid in a veggie heap
Takes about ten weeks
And then we see
A tangle of baby dice snakes
Wriggling everywhere
And that will be near water
Actually
Where there will be a host of
Tiny tadpoles and snakes all have
An insatiable appetite
And with all the good nutrition
Of the tadpole
Will eat and eat
Enjoying every bite

Digestion though it takes quite a bit longer
They like to rest up and warm up a while
There is predation around
So they must be careful
The praying mantis it will just astound
And overwhelm young snakes
With Smash and grab raids
Held and eaten alive to the last scale
Snakes have lots of enemies
To think about
And need their wits about them
Or they will fail

Snakes have milky eyes
And shed their skin a lot
Thats how they grow
Imagine as we get bigger
We have to shed skin tHen we’d know
What its like to be a snake
Theres a lot to think about
And people get scared and thrown into a panic
But I have my doubt

If it is really true
For some will buy
A snakes skin bag
That cost the earth
And a life too
Such a fag!

It always makes me shudder
When I see these women wear
Animal skins whilst moaning
That snakes are here and scare
The life out of some people
Who will avidly wear their skin
And tell themselves its “designer”
Sorry the excuse wears thin

To me they are hags of the brain dead
No respect for life
The skins and furs they wear
And the unbelievable strife
We put them through to remove their skins
The agony and pain
So we can say how beautiful
Our bag looks in the rain

And pay the corporations
Thousands of pounds whilst we
Know people who caught the snakes somewhere
Get a pittance actually
Encouraging anybody to hunt
Down snakes so you
Can profit from their agony
Let karmic debt ensue

But can you see the conflation
Of wearing the skins of those
You only ever thought badly of
To me it really shows
Their total evil arrogance
And their ignorance should be
Rewarded witH a life of hell
And adversity.